Patron Types

Patron types help classify your patrons for the purposes of circulation rules and reporting. If yours is a school library, for example, you might have patron types for the grades in your school, for library staff, and for faculty.

Surpass includes a default set of patron types based on your library type. You can use these as-is, or fine tune them to suit your library's needs. Patron types are defined in Settings : Patrons : Types.

There are two primary reasons to use distinct patron types: for circulation rules and/or for reporting.

Circulation Rules

You can define different circulation rules based on patron type. For example, most libraries allow the staff members of your organization to check out items for longer periods than regular patrons are allowed. For each group of patrons in your library that has distinct circulation needs, whether they be special restrictions or additional privileges, you'll likely want to use a distinct patron type.

Circulation rules are defined in Settings : Circulation : Rules.

Reporting

When generating patron reports, patron type is one of the most commonly used criteria for sorting or conditions. For example, a public library might want to generate different reports for senior citizen patrons. Or, a corporate library may wish to be able to generate reports solely for the patrons in the sales department. In both of these cases, it would be very helpful to have those patrons assigned to distinct patron types.