GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE PATRON LOAD PROCESS
The patron load integration connects Alma with your institution’s Student Information System (SIS), which in almost all cases is the Banner system. Alma uses this integration to create new Patrons, expire old Patrons, and update existing patron data.
This is similar to the patron load process utilized with Voyager, but with Alma the import process and expected file format have changed, so GIL has developed and tested a method to convert the current Voyager import files to work w/Alma.
Institutions provide patron files to GIL (via SFTP) that will be processed and converted to Alma XML and loaded. Some basic configuration settings will be available per-institution, in particular those related to user group mapping and expiration date behavior. These new procedures are more sustainable and secure than the previous Voyager Patron load process. Institutions can choose to automate this process if they have the infrastructure in place to do so. Every effort has been made to make this process work with little to no additional effort from institutions.
GIL had plans to develop a more streamlined and uniform export/import process. We envisioned this process being much easier to manage/maintain. It turns out that the current process has been pretty easy to maintain, so this project is on hold until after the RFP process is complete.