Confidentiality of Patron Accounts

Patron account information should never be shared with any person other than the patron. See Library Guideline 201 for more information.

There are several ways to bring up a patron's account in Aleph:

• Scan the red UMBC ID or Special Borrower’s Card.

• Enter the local ID from a red UMBC ID card, prefaced by ‘BC-‘.

• Enter the patron's system ID (00000xxxxxxx).Look up the patron by name:

  1. Click on the button with 3 dots on the patron line.

  2.  Enter name in this format - last name, first name - and press <Enter>.

  3. Highlight the entry that matches the patron and click the <Select> button.

A list of subheadings in the left pane can be used to access different parts of the patron's account. Not all of these subheadings are in use. Here is a summary of the most useful subheadings:

Loans

This provides a list of all the books currently checked out to the patron, along with due dates, owning libraries, and a link to the item record for each book. To print a list of these books, see Borrower Circulation Summary.

Cash

This provides a list of all fines owed by this patron to the UMBC Library. See Fines for more information

Hold Requests

This provides a list of all currently-active hold requests for this patron. The Status will be either "in process" or "on hold". In Process books are on their way; On Hold books are currently available on a hold shelf. To see where an item is being held, click its line on the list, and then look for the Pickup Location field below the list.

Circulation Log

This provides a detailed log of all activity associated with this account.

Global Patron Information

This lists the patron's name, barcode, home library, and a few other pieces of information. A second tab also lists any blocks or notes attached to this account. See Blocks for more information.

Local Patron Information

This lists all campus affiliations for the patron, along with a status and expiration date for each. Most patrons will have two affiliations: one for the USMAI consortium, and one for their specific university (UMBC, for most of our patrons). Expired accounts can be manually renewed here, but there are few occasions where this should be done.

For a list of UMBC patron statuses, see here.

Address Information

This contains the patron's current address(es). The information here can be updated, but for most patrons, any changes will shortly be overwritten by the campus identity management system. For this reason, patrons who wish to update their address information should be advised to do so through MyUMBC.

Additional IDs

This contains a list of the various identification numbers associated with a patron - their barcode, system number, and local ID (the alphanumeric identifier on their red campus card).