Allow customers to set/adjust Preferred Name via MY Account in PAC
Currently, staff can set a preferred name for customers but customers can only do so themselves during their initial self registration (we use Quipu's eReg). It would be great if customers could make preferred name adjustments on their own even after registration, via My Account.
Functionally, this could entail a check box that they wish to use a different name and, when they do this, it would automatically duplicate the existing values in their required name fields into the Name on ID fields and then allow the edit to Required name field. This would be an especially helpful option for customers who desire greater anonymity on hold slips.
Jennifer Hoffman
shared this idea
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Phil Agnew
commented
I agree. Preferred names are nothing more than how a patron would like to be addressed and should be controlled by the patron.
Beyond the aforementioned anonymity and general politeness, staff can also be impacted if the patron record doesn't match the preferred name. If "**** Grayson" asked a staff member to place a hold on book about the history of Bludhaven, but his account only included the name "Richard", the account isn't going to surface in their initial search. Since **** is a common nickname for Richard (for reasons I still don't comprehend), they would probably figure it out, but it would be better if the patron had been able to updated their preferred name on their own.
I can understand why some libraries might prefer to mediate account name changes though, so this feature should probably have a configuration option that can be toggled on or off. I know of one instance where a teen used a similar feature in another ILS to change their preferred name to their gamer tag... it confused staff for a bit, but the teen was able to clarify things and their parent insisted the name be changed back on the account. Rather comical in hindsight, but it illustrates why this should be an optional configuration and why changes should probably be logged on the account.