2023-11-09 Resource Access Meeting Notes

Form small sub-working groups per feature, which will be enriched/worked on in a workshop-like manner under the direction of a mini-PO or group leader in biweekly meetings, during RA-SIG time, e.g. in break out sessions

Outcome/Guidelines for discussion:

Please select a note taker for your session
focus on one single solution for the topic
avoid branching the topic out to much
Make note of other features if the come up (put them into the gap list)
Enrich Jira Issues with your requirements (by the group leader)

The First topics are:

Anonymous user ID token in notices and staff slips - Tara will take the lead on this one.
- see also:
  - UXPROD-1830 - Getting issue details... STATUS
  - UXPROD-1831 - Getting issue details... STATUS

Automatic renewals - David will take the lead.

Anonymization - Cornelia will take the lead. This topic will be postponed

Meeting Notes

Anonymized Slip Token Breakout Notes

RA SIG met during a breakout session on 2023-11-09 about Anonymized Tokens for Staff Slips (UXPROD-2435). We determined the following:

Libraries need an anonymized token on staff slips for several reasons:
- Many libraries require the ability to print anonymized staff slips because they have public hold shelves, in which patrons have access to books and slips.
  - At many libraries, it is considered a violation of patron privacy to allow patrons other than the borrower to see which books the borrower is checking out or has requested.
- Additionally, at some libraries with closed hold shelves, there are concerns about staff slips themselves being left in the trash or where other patrons might access them during pulls, revealing information about patron requests.
The primary purpose of the anonymized token on staff slips is to group a patron's requested items together on a shelf without revealing protected information, allowing the patron to find their own self-service holds.
- Therefore:
  - The token must allow the books to be grouped together by patron. We do not want patrons rifling through the hold shelf. (That is to say, request number will not work even though it is anonymous.)
  - The token must be both anonymized and safe by the library's definition
    - What is considered anonymized has some features in common, but is not always the same:
      - At many libraries, shortening the patron's name beyond easy recognition (three letters from the surname, one letter from the first name) is considered sufficiently anonymous.
        We noted that this method is actually not anonymized among populations with names that are often shorter than three letters (common, for example, among Chinese names).
      - At some libraries, a patron's barcode is the same as their social security number and cannot be used in whole or part to anonymize staff slips.
        There are some additional cautions for barcodes--barcodes themselves may be unique, but many purchased barcodes begin with the same digits, so the token would need to be taken from the end of the string.
  - The token should not be new data--adding an additional id to remember is not desired. It must be created out of existing identifiers (name, barcode, etc)
  - The token does not need to be fully unique. There may be implications for hold shelf clearance reports or some potential confusion, but this is acceptable to most libraries.
- A custom field will not suffice for the anonymized token. While adding custom fields to staff slips could be used to solve this problem at some libraries, not all libraries load their patrons in a way that would make automating the adding of this data straightforward.
- In a perfect world:
  - FOLIO would generate an anonymized token based on configurations set by the library. The library could select from a number of existing fields (Last Name, First Name, Barcode, UserID, etc) and set the method of anonymization (3 characters from start of string, three characters from end of string, etc). Users would need to be able to select up to two existing fields they wish to combine.
  - The token must be available on both pick slips and hold slips. Ideally, it would also be available in notices, to allow libraries to communicate to patrons information about how to pick up their requests.
Other further thoughts:
- is it possible to make this data available in discovery layers?
- it is possible to display this in the users app or in the requests accordion?