The Problem

At best, the method and workflow used to bulk import patrons into Polaris (often referred to as student import) is archaic. The Polaris documentation for this process, Importing Student Records as Patron Records, is 19 pages long and seven of those pages are definitions and descriptions for the format of a pipe delimited file. This file contains 65 separate columns, all of which must be included in the file even if they contain no information. The documentation defines at least three columns that you should not populate… so why are they there? You can obtain a sample Excel file so long as you have access to the Supportal.

After you've populated this spreadsheet you'll need to convert it to PSV and add another and completely separate line above the patron data that specifies the number 1 (Why?), the time, the date, a branch ID, a user ID, a workstation ID, and the version and build of your Polaris system. (Incidentally, the documentation doesn't specify that last bit, you only find out about it in another Supportal post. The documentation says you should end the top line with the number 20. Again, why?) After you do all of that, rename the file in a very special way and change the extension to TRN before putting it in a very special location on your workstation or server. Finally, initiate the import via… the BookMobile?

Meanwhile, with Koha, you can obtain a starter CSV from within the ILS itself, and import the patrons through a patron import workform. Their patron import documentation comes out to just over two pages and 554 words.

I apologize for the rant, but I want to stress the length, the tedium, the potential for error, and the brokenness of the Polaris process. As it stands right now, it's almost impossible for anyone other than an ILS administrator to handle patron imports.

Ideas to Fix the Problem

Basic changes that would go a long way:

• Change the import file to CSV.
• Simplify the CSV to remove columns that shouldn't be used.
• Add patron import to Leap.
• Offer the sample CSV within Leap.
• Create an import process that asks for the information in the leader of a TRN file, but defaults to the current time, date, branch ID, workstation ID, and user ID.
• This import workform should be separate from the BookMobile functionality.

Idea Value
Every year, right around the time I'm submitting this idea, Polaris libraries across the United States are importing large amounts of students into their systems. The process for doing so is meticulous, yet it's also error prone and convoluted. That's not the kind of system you need when you're adding hundreds or thousands of new patrons into your system. The PSV format of the TRN file practically guarantees that you're going to have to make at least one or two file conversions when you obtain data from a separate entity, such as a school. Switching to CSV helps ensure a closer interoperability between database types and product vendors so the potential for error is greatly reduced.