Make Big Brother Work for You: Mining Patron Data for Enhanced Library Services Yosef Branse Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library University of Haifa IGeLU Conference September 2014

University of Haifa  Faculties: Humanities, Social Sciences, Education, Science and Science Education, Law, Social Welfare and Health Sciences  As of academic year, approximately: - 17,700 fulltime degree students academic staff administrative staff IGeLU Conference, September

Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library  central library, single acquisitions budget, open stacks  65 staff positions  approximately 2 million items: monographs, periodicals, audio-visual materials, electronic texts and journals, archival collections, digitization projects, etc.  Ex Libris products in use: Aleph v. 20, SFX v. 4, bX, Metalib v. 4, Primo v. 3, Primo Central, Digitool v. 3  tradition of in-house support and development – Library Information Systems Department IGeLU Conference, September

Summary of systems  Presentation of patron data during reference consultation  Storage of reference session data for statistics  Follow up on patron satisfaction with reference service  Access to required course readings  Management of access privileges to online systems IGeLU Conference, September

Summary of systems - 2  Display of user’s library notices in student and staff portals  Creation of mailing lists for distribution to specified groups (by degree, department, etc.)  Automatic insertion of personal data in online forms IGeLU Conference, September

A stable yet evolving system 1985– Pre-Aleph; in-house software c – Aleph 2 c – Aleph – Aleph 500 – major conversion 2014 –Aleph Alma ? IGeLU Conference, September

Software infrastructure  L inux operating system  A pache Web server  M ySQL database  P erl script language  O racle database, PL/SQL packages  P hp script language IGeLU Conference, September

The Library as information producer and consumer Cataloging: MARC records (consumer); Local data fields (producer) Value-added services based on information from outside sources Close cooperation with University’s MIS department for receipt of latest patron data and export of Library data to other University systems, for mutual benefit

Sources of data from University’s SAP System Library FTP directory Personal data – academic and administrative staff Personal data - students Current courses and student course registration

Reader data entered by Library staff  Paying readers  Patrons from other Israeli universities  Proxies (lecturers’ assistants authorized to perform transactions on their behalf)

Update of Aleph reader data Daily run of service p_file_20 (upload of patron data via xml file)

Relevant Aleph tables (Library HAI50)  z303 – Global Patron Information  z304 – Patron’s address(es)  z305 – Patron’s local information  local library tables IGeLU Conference, September

Selected data from user tables z303, z304, z305  z303_rec_key, z304_rec_key, z305_rec_key (ID number)  z303_name  z303_title  z304_address, z304_zip  z304_ _address  z304_telephone (up to 4 entries)  z305_bor_type, z305_bor_status  z305_expiry_date IGeLU Conference, September

Compact reader-data view

What we know about (nearly) every patron  Name  ID number  Expiration date of library privileges  Home address (street, city, ZIP code)  Telephone number (up to four)  address  Borrower status and type  Departmental affiliation(s)  Courses  Attendance at library orientation sessions

Borrower statuses  Students  Administrative staff  Library staff  Academic staff  Teaching assistants  Inter-Library Loan  No borrowing rights  Miscellaneous categories

Borrower types  Students: BA, MA, Ph.D., foreign students, academic preparatory course, external studies, etc.  Staff members: tenured, non-tenured, adjunct faculty, unpaid leave, sabbatical, retirees, field instructors, etc.  Borrowers from other institutions  Paying readers

Library privileges Patron’s status and type determine nature of privileges granted, such as:  Borrowing books, periodicals, audio-visual materials  Number of items that may be borrowed  Loan duration  Access to online databases  Reference services

Patron helpdesk session

Additional information displayed when relevant  Item requested by patron has arrived and can be retrieved from Circulation desk  No address recorded – patron is advised to notify relevant parties  Attendance at Library orientation sessions

Followup questionnaire

Summary of Responses, – letters sent ; 237 responses (11.9%) Not at allSomewhatA great deal Helpfulness of session Use of material obtained

Selected respondents’ comments on reference service “courteous, professional service…endless patience…quick, thorough, efficient…assisted me in searching and learning how to search…wonderful people…thanks to them I now know how to manage in the Library…” “The staff help because they want to, not just because it’s their job” “The service I received during the past three years was simply excellent. Period.” “Keep up the good work!”

Access to required course readings Data regarding current courses, student course registration and assigned readings is the basis for an interface by which student can efficiently access digital offprints, electronic texts, video and other materials.

Flow of data from sources to Aleph tables HAI01/ z00 SAP Course data SAP Course registration HAI30/ z00, z13 HAI50/ z108 HAI50/ z107

Management of access privileges to online systems  Authentication – “who are you?”  Authorization – “what resources are you allowed to access?”  SSO (Single-Sign On) – when users need to access multiple resources: - avoids repeated authentication - manages authorization

Library resources accessible via SSO  Aleph (reader card)  Digitool  Primo  Online databases  Course readings  “Kushiya” – online examination system

Daily automatic update of patron privileges  Detect new users and those whose rights have expired  Record, in a text file, user’s ID number and codes denoting the services to which they are entitled (as indicated by borrower status and type)  Update a local database table with these details, triggering an update of the central SSO database – including deletion of records for ineligible patrons

Authorization management In practice, nearly all users have access to all resources. Usual exceptions are restrictions on access to online databases for users from outside the University. Authorization management enables flexibility in dealing with new resources, changes in patron status, etc., regardless of the source of patron data (SAP or internal)

Display of user’s library notices in student and staff portals  Loan can’t be renewed due to hold placed by other reader  Non-renewable loan due tomorrow  Please return overdue item(s)  Please settle outstanding fine owed to Library  Library privileges will expire soon  Item requested has been returned and can be borrowed at the Circulation desk

Update of portal notices  Twice a day, a file is prepared containing patron ID numbers with numerical codes denoting type of notice  File is used to update an Oracle table  Data in table triggers insertion of relevant notice text in designated location of patron’s personal space in student/staff portal

Library notices in staff portal

Library notices in student portal

Creation of mailing lists for distribution to specified groups  Irregular announcements of lectures, training sessions, service interruptions, vacation schedules, etc.  Some announcements are relevant for specific groups: all lecturers; Ph.D. students; students and lecturers of a specific faculty or department, etc.  Relevant addresses can be retrieved based on borrower status or type, and academic affiliation

“Include me out!!”  Nearly every mass mailing results in at least one angry response from someone who is no longer affiliated with the University or just doesn’t want to receive notices from the Library  Entry of user’s ID number in online form adds their address to a stoplist to prevent their inclusion in subsequent mailing lists

Automatic insertion of personal data in online forms  Library forms for academic staff Library forms for academic staff  Request for monograph acquisition Request for monograph acquisition  Request for periodicals acquisition Request for periodicals acquisition  Personal details (ID number, name, borrower status and type, phone) are sent as hidden values in form

Patron data sent to script as hidden form elements

Food for thought: ethical considerations  Databases retain information on potentially sensitive material, such as research topics, book loans, courses attended  Employees with access to databases must sign “Commitment to Maintain Confidentiality”  Data stored in Library databases is for internal use only

Obligatory declaration for IT workers with access to databases “I commit myself to: … avoid accessing or using any data without permission of the user or a relevant University authority… to relate with strict confidentiality to data of any sort and refrain from disseminating it in any form… to take all acceptable precautions to preserve confidentiality of the data …”

Questions?

Thank you! Yosef Branse Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library University of Haifa Information Systems Dept IGeLU Conference, September