Koha Question of the Week: Will Koha Update Patron Categories Automatically?

by Kelly McElligott on Dec 24, 2021

Question: Will Koha Automatically Update Patron Categories such as Youth to Adult?

We have a youth patron category can Koha update them to an Adult category when they reach a certain age?

Answer

Yes! Koha has a cronjob (a backend script) that can be added to your site that will update patron categories by specific criteria.

For example, this can be used to convert child/youth patrons from a child patron category to an adult patron category when they reach the upper age limit defined in the patron category.

If your library would like a child patron category to be updated to an adult category when they turn 17, the upper age limit on the child/youth patron should indicate this- and Koha will respect this through the cron.

This also can be done for specific branches (if you are in a multibranch system) and not all the branches.

There are other ways this specific cron, Update Patron Categories, can be used. For example, a library can update the patron category of patrons who have more than $X in fines associated with their account.

Or if a library wanted to update a patron category by registration date, this can be done via the same cron.

For more resources

Here is the link to this specific cron in Koha.

If you are a partner of ByWater Solutions and would like to activate this cron, send us a ticket with the details and we would be happy to set this automatic process up for you!