Statistical Patron and Local Use

Statistical Patron and Local Use

One way to track the use of in house items is to “check out” the materials to a statistical patron. The “check out” process doesn’t check the book out but instead tracks an in house use of the item. You can create a statistical patron for tracking reference material, magazines, archives, genealogy, etc.


Set up a Statistical Use Patron Category

To use this method for tracking in house use you first will need a patron category set up for your statistical patron.
  1. Go to More > Administration > Patrons and circulation > Patron categories
  2. Click ‘New category’ at the top of the page
  3. Enter your code and description
  4. Under Category type select Statistical
  5. Click Save

Set up a Statistical Patron

Next, you will need to create a new patron of the statistical type.

  1. Go to Patrons > + New Patron
  2. Next, add your statistical patron. Since this patron is not a real person, simply fill in the required fields and the correct library.
    1. In our example, we use First Name Reference
    2. Last Name Statistical Patron
    3. for cardnumber you can use something like "refstat"
  3. Click Save

Checkout to a Statistical Patron

When collecting items that have been used within the library, you will want to check them out to your statistical patron.
  1. Pull up your statistical patron
  2. scan the barcode(s)
  3. click checkout
Instead of marking the item as ‘checked out’ the system will record that the item was used in house. You will notice the circulation table will not populate.



Other System Preferences

The other way to record local use of items is to set your RecordLocalUseOnReturn preference to ‘Record.’ Then whenever you check an item in that is not checked out a local use will be recorded.

With this method, all "check-ins" are recorded, such as a check-in for a hold, a transfer, etc.

Display Local Use to Staff

The system preference RecordLocalUseOnReturn must be set to “Record” to record local use by checking out to the statistical patron and/or by checking in a book that is not currently checked out.


You can configure your table columns to show local use in the holdings table.
  1. Click on Configure on the holdings table or Navigate to Administration --> Table settings
  2. Select Catalogue tables
  3. Scroll down to Table id: holdings_table
  4. Make sure holdings_localuse is unselected, this will make it visible in the holdings table

Report

This report allows staff to choose an item type and see all the local use for that particular itemtype.
Info
SELECT
biblio.title,
items.barcode,
items.itemcallnumber,
items.issues,
items.renewals,
items.localuse
FROM items
JOIN biblio USING (biblionumber)
WHERE items.itype = <<Item type|itemtypes>>

How Do We Track Usage of Non-Barcoded Items?

In order to check out and circulate an item in Koha, items will need to be barcoded.

However, some libraries like to lend out items that don't necessarily have to come back in a certain time frame and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis, returned on an honor system, if at all. Examples might be a donated paperback collection for vacation loans or lending out back-issue magazines. In library school, we probably referred to these as ephemeral checkouts - it would be nice to see how much usage they get, but without caring about due dates and fines on them, they're more bother than they're worth to individually barcode.

Many libraries use local use for seeing what reference materials are used in-house, but we can use the same principle since we're more interested in usage than enforcing due dates. In addition to a local use card, you will need at least one record in Koha with an item that has a barcode on it and enough description on the record to indicate what it is. For example, I have a very basic record here for a paperback with a note on it about where the paperback can be found. I've put a public note on it, but I could also suppress from the OPAC and only have it findable in the staff client.


For something like magazines, if you want more information on what titles people are borrowing, each title's record should have an item with a barcode on it.

When a patron brings the items to the desk to "check out," instead of scanning their card, bring up your statistical patron account and scan the barcode for the item being borrowed. If the person has a stack of 10 paperbacks, scan that barcode in 10 times. You can even get fancy and use the new Barcode Image Creator tool unveiled in version 22.05 to generate barcode images and create a cheat sheet for staff at the circulation desk with the statistical-use card number and item barcode(s).



The best part of tracking usage via statistical patron is that the data can be reported on. What magazines are people interested in? Is that legacy paperback collection actually being used? Testing the waters for something like a local zine or seed library and want to gauge community interest? Now you can find out.

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