Minnesota State User Load FAQs

Answers for frequently asked questions about the Minnesota State User Load. 

These answers are only applicable for the cohort of Minnesota State College and University Libraries (MnSCU). 

What is the Minnesota State User Load?

The process by which MnSCU  students, faculty and staff patron information is loaded into the library software, Alma. This user information for the MnSCU is managed centrally by the system office and loaded using an API. The information flows one way, which means that updates made to patron information in Alma does not synch or upload to ISRS/Workday. As user's information is managed by a system outside of Alma, these accounts are known as external accounts. These patrons authenticate or access Primo VE or Alma when applicable using their StarID in a Single Sign On (SSO). 

Accounts

When are accounts updated?

Faculty and Staff

All Faculty and Staff accounts are sent nightly.  The system office does not send faculty or staff before their begin date in ISRS nor after their end date. The following affiliation types are considered faculty or staff accounts in Alma: PRES, ADMN, AFAC, CONF, CUST, FACA, FACF, FUNS, MGRS, STF or SUPV.

Students

The system office creates and updates accounts via a job that occurs 3 times a day.  To manage capacity, the system office identifies any student accounts with specific changes since the prior job and adds them to the upcoming job.

All student accounts are sent at the start of each semester and upon specified changes to their account. Changes to the following will trigger an update to Alma: any registration activity (an update or withdraw), placement or removal of an Library Hold, and changes to their information fields: name, address, phone or email.  

What is the Library Hold?

A Library Hold is added & removed from a student's account through communication with your registrar or bursar's office which triggers an update in Alma.

The Library Hold, ISRS Library Hold is a known as a Hold Code 22 in ISRS. 

Assigning an ISRS Library hold to a patron's account in Alma does not place a hold on their ISRS account. 

How do accounts expire? 

Patron's expiration dates in Alma are updated by extending the expiry date for active students and faculty/staff. For non-returning students, and inactive faculty/staff their information is no longer sent to Alma and thus are not updated. The account expires once the expiry date provided in the last update passes. For this reason, it's suggested that any accounts having roles in Alma other than patron or instructor should be deactivate, have the roles removed or assigned an expiry date once the patrons is no longer active.

How are old accounts removed? 

Accounts expire according to their expiry date. Periodically expired accounts without active loans or fines are removed using their purge date. The patron expiry purge jobs are run either by the library or the PALS office. It is recommended this process occurs annually at a minimum. 

What determines if my student workers are students or staff?

This depends on how your HR department enters the student worker in ISRS. Accounts are sent to Alma from ISRS, as either student or faculty/staff based on the account's active affiliations in ISRS.  

How can I tell if an account's been updated?

In Alma, first check the patron's expiry date. If it does not match the expected expiry, the account has not updated. If it does, then review the patron's contact information and see the last time an external field like a note was updated.  

From the patron services page click on the hyperlinked Edit Notes. Review the creation date of any external notes, these show when the account was last updated via the API.  

Patron Services Step by Step:

1. Click on Edit Notes
   
2. Review the creation date on any of the external fields.

Patron Services Page with Edit Notes link Highlighted

User Details with note creation dates highlighted.

Expiry Date

How is patron's expiry date determined? 

The default user expiry date is the last day of term determined by the school's academic calendar. Schools that elect to do so can manage the expiry dates in ISRS for faculty/staff and students each semester.  In general, most of the MinnState libraries use the default date for their user expiries. When enabled, staff can loans items beyond patron's expiry, for details see Loan Due Date beyond Patron Expiry.    

Local management of expiry dates requires coordination with the system office, so if your library is interested please submit a ticket. 

Why is the expiry different or the account set to inactive?

When a student withdraws, the system office sends an update to the account. This update sets the account to inactive and changes the expiry date to that day. If the expiry date is different in another 

How are expired patrons blocked? 

An expired account will not authenticate. Authentication or access to Alma/Primo VE is a two step process and the patron must pass both processes to access Alma/Primo.

1. The patron authenticates using the SSO with their StarID
   
1. This step checks the patron's authentication with their institution. Reviewing to see if the id is affiliated with the institution and active. If so, then authentication proceeds to the next step.
   
2. Authentication via Alma/Primo VE
   
1. The system then checks Alma to make sure there is an associated account containing the id provided from the SSO, and verifies the account is active and has appropriate roles to do the requested activity. 
   
2. Note: If account authenticates via SSO but not in Alma, error message displays: 
   
   Example of Error Message when patron authenticated via SSO but not Alma.
   

Patron Data

What is the statistical information being sent?

Statistical Information is provided by the system office which can be mapped in analytics to allow for a better look at trends. The fields need to be mapped for the information to be effective in analytics, but the information being sent from the system office is the following: Classification, Department, College, Major, Type of Degree, & Patron Type (Student or Faculty/Staff).

Note: Available data depends on your school's data in ISRS/Workday. 

Can I request additional fields for the patron record?

In the transitional period to the system office managing the patron load, standardization across the Minnesota State Institutions was required. At that time, the PALS office surveyed the MnSCU libraries asking them what data was requested, which informed the update and data that is currently sent.  If you would like to suggest or request additional fields, the PALS office can make a note to submit during the next update. It's very helpful if you can provide a use or business case as to why you need the information. 

Changes to working system wide processes require significant need and are not timely.

How can I better use the StarID in analytics?

Submit a ticket to have the StarID mapped to the user identifier type 2 in analytics which will allow you to correlate statistical information with fulfillment data. 

How can I assign a new expiry for a group of students in bulk?

You need to be able to identify the students to create a set. You can locate them using a logical set if there is a shared characteristic like a standard note. Otherwise, you'll need to have a list of the accounts' primary ids or other identifiers.  Once you have a user set, you use the update/notify user job to assign the new expiry. 

How can I protect information from being overwritten on an account? 

As these accounts are externally managed, all external fields are overwritten by the information in any updates. To protect information or a field from being deleted or changed, it should be added as an internal field. Note: Staff need to have one of the following roles to make theses changes: User Manager, User Administrator, Circulation Desk Operator, Circulation Desk Manager. The Circulation Desk Operator - Limited is only able to edit Identifiers, and Contact Information. 

1. Use the user search to locate patron's account
   
2. Click on the hyperlink name
   
3. Navigate to the appropriate tab, Notes for example
4. Select Add Note
   
5. Fill out information
   
6. Double check the external checkbox is not clicked
   
7. Select Add and Close
   

How can I tell if an field is set to internal or external? 

Account must be external for it to have external fields. When reviewing the patron's information, external fields are indicated by a green checkmark in the external data column for the field, if there is no green check present the field is set to internal. 

User Details page with green external checkmark highlighted by red box.

Why are certain fields duplicated?  

The duplicated fields (addresses, phone, email, notes, & identifiers) for external patrons occurred due an error with the ISRS update in August of 2021. Any patrons who updated during that time frame received external fields which duplicated and flipped to internal.  The most egregious of these duplicates occurred on faculty/staff accounts as they update nightly while student accounts update at the start of the semester and upon student activity like registration or addresses updates.  Internal fields are protected during the update process so the patron update process will maintain the internal fields indefinitely on these accounts. These duplicated fields do not affect anything in Alma and Ex Libris has verified there is no limit on the number of fields shown. 

What do these notes mean?

Expected Grad Term

Identifies patrons who are scheduled to graduate during the current semester. It's added to the account by once graduation paperwork is filed.
Note: Can be paired with advanced user search or report to identify patrons with active loans who are are scheduled to graduate.

Example: Advanced user search: Note contains phrase Expected Grad Term: Spring 2023.

Home_Library: XXX

Home Library indicates which resource sharing library is automatically assigned, reflecting the campus for the patron's account. If the patron isn't associated with a campus the default campus is used.

Distance Student? (Yes/No)

When set to yes, indicates the patron is taking at least one class with an online differential. 

Non-Degree Seeking? (Yes/No)

When set to no, indicates patron is seeking a degree. When set to yes, indicates patron is not. 

Cohort Code: PSEO

When this note is listed on the patron's account, it indicates the student is part of the PSEO cohort. 

Block - ISRS Library Hold

Library requests the bursar or registrar's office to place the library block (type 22) on a patron's account in ISRS/Workday. When the block is added to the patron's account in ISRS, it's sent to Alma as part of the patron's user data. When the fine or block is resolved by the bursar or registrars, it is automatically removed from the patron's account. Note: an ISRS Library Hold's default block action prevents a patron from loan, renew, hold and ILL.

Troubleshooting

Reminder these responses are for issues with the Minnesota State (MnSCU) user load.

I edited the user's account, why is my change not staying in Alma?  

If the address or field added is added as external and the information is not being sent from the system office; the field will be overwritten and deleted. To protect information it should be added as internal field, evidenced in the user record by the presence of a green check mark. The preferred email address is automatically sent from the system office. If you'd like to use a locally preferred email address, set the email address type as cc email. 

How can I set an external field to internal so it can be protected?

If the field you want to protect has been added as external, you'll need to copy the information, delete the field and re-add it as external field to the account. 
Update field to external: Example identifier barcode

1. Navigate to the affected patron
2. Click on the identifier Tab
3. Copy the barcode on file
4. Use Ellipsis to delete the barcode on file
5. Click on Add new Identifier
6. Check the Add as External Checkbox
7. Paste the barcode 
8. Click on Add & Close, I recommend that you review the patron's history tab to make sure the barcodes are the same.
9. Save
   

Barcode now displays green check indicating that it is an external field.

How can I remove duplicated fields?

To remove these duplicate fields, staff need to update internal fields to external or delete them off the account. The easiest way to manage this process is by toggling the account to internal then re-setting it to external. This process updates the fields on the account to external, and the formerly internal fields will delete when the account is next updated. However, if you have internal fields like notes, fines or holds on an account that you'd like to protect, I instead recommend individually deleting the extra fields (addresses, emails, notes, & statistics). 

To update these fields for all the externally updated patrons, create a set of identified patrons, use the update/notify users jobs to set the accounts to internal then re-run the job to set them to external. The next time the account is updated the extraneous fields will disappear. Please be aware this process overwrites all internal fields so if you have internal information that you want to keep internal, those accounts need to be updated manually. 

Why can't I see the toggle account button?

Toggle Account Button, highlighted in red only shows for accounts with appropriate roles.

The toggle account button only displays for accounts that have a user management role, either user manager or user administrator. 

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