Borrower import

Find information about the Borrower Import function, which enables sites to import borrower data from an Administration system into the Amlib system.

The Borrower Import function enables sites to import borrower data from an Administration system (for example: Cases, EDSAS, Maze, Synergetic, etc) into the Amlib system.

This allows for:

This function is predominantly used by school libraries at the start of each year/semester to update their student records (or add new ones).

The program allows for the restoration of the old data if necessary.

It has a facility to “map” administrative codes to those used on your Amlib database. They do not have to be the same codes, but need to be matched to the corresponding codes so they will import correctly for each borrower record.

The data file to be imported can be copied from the administrative database onto a USB drive, CD or to a file accessible on the network. You will need to know the exact path so that you can access it during the Borrower download process (from your administrative database). Once the data file has been downloaded from the administrative database, it can be uploaded into Amlib.

The file sent to you should be in one of the following file formats:

You can have empty fields in your import, but they must be left empty and not have the data moved across. For example: if you didn’t have a Second Name or Preferred Name, you would leave two blank fields where they should be in your file:

Example format (CSV):

If the above example left out the RED Group code, the data would be:

Pipe (|) separated:

Dates must be formatted in one of the following three ways:

If there are trailing spaces in the data, the program strips these out and causes no problems with the download.

Format 1: MAZE, Synergetic, CASES, COSYCORNER

This format contains only 17-18 fields, which should be downloaded into a data file from the administrative software (for example: MAZE, Synergetic, CASES, COSYCORNER, etc.) in the sequence as shown below.

Mandatory Fields: The data must include Borrower Shortname (Unique ID/BarCode), Surname and Type. These cannot be left as null fields. Any unused fields should be left blank but included as null fields.

FIELD

CSV COLUMN

EXAMPLE

1. (Unique ID/BarCode)

Borrower Short Name/MAZE Key

A

ANDERL

2. Surname

B

ANDERSON

3. Given

C

LAURENCE

4. Second Name (only imports initial)

D

WILLIAM

5. Preferred (overrides Borrower Given)

E

LAURIE

6. Type

F

1

7. Group

G

RED

8. Class

H

B1SJ

9. Date of Birth (or date of entry depending on what is used by the admin. database)

I

1/01/83

10. Sex

J

M

11. Location

K

BB

12. Contact name

L

MR & MRS W.B. ANDERSON

13. Contact Address Line 1

M

5/165 King Edward St

14. Contact Address Line 2

N

Bayswater

15. Contact Address Line 3

O

WA

16. Postcode

P

6053

17. Contact Phone Number

Q

9462 1111

18. Email (Optional)

R

john.smith@oclc.org

Format 3: SIS (WA Education Dept)

This format contains only 22 fields, which should be downloaded into a data file from the Administrative software (SIS) in the sequence as shown in below.

Please Note: All files must be in a standard .CSV format. Any unused fields should be left blank but included as null fields.

FIELD #

FIELD NAME

TYPE & SIZE

EXAMPLE

1

(Unique ID) ID/REF/BarCode

Alpha Numeric 15

1234

2

Type

Alpha Numeric 1

  1. student
  2. teaching staff
  3. Non Teacher

3

Date of Birth

Date

12 JAN 1993

4

Sex

Alpha Numeric 1

M / F

5

Surname

Alpha Numeric 40

Smith

6

First name

Alpha Numeric 40

Jonathon

7

2nd name

Alpha Numeric 20

Peter

8

3rd name

Alpha Numeric 40

Paul

9

Preferred name

Alpha Numeric 40

John

10

Addr line 1

Alpha Numeric 40

151 Royal St

11

Addr line 2

Alpha Numeric 40

 

12

Addr line 3

Alpha Numeric 40

 

13

Suburb

Alpha Numeric 50

East Perth

14

State

Alpha Numeric 40

WA

15

Postcode

Alpha Numeric 10

6004

16

Phone 1

Alpha Numeric 30

9264 1111

17

Phone 2

Alpha Numeric 30

9264 1113

18

E-mail

Alpha Numeric 100

john.smith@oclc.org

19

Parent Salute

Alpha Numeric 60

Mr & Mrs Smith

20

Class

Alpha Numeric 15

Room 5

21

Group (Type)

Alpha Numeric 2

4 (K, P 12, up etc)

22

Entry Date

Date

22 SEP 1998

Format 3: All Fields/EDSAS (SA Education Dept)

You must have at least 19 columns, up to 25 columns (with the exception of 22 – see Format 2).

Mandatory Fields: Borrower Shortname (Unique ID/BarCode) and Borrower Type. Additionally, you need to have data in the Location column even if this does not come from your Admin system. If you do not store patron location against the student in your admin system, you can just put a 1 in every line of the file and match this 1 to your library location later.

Please Note: If the data file only contains 19 fields the Guardian details are copied from fields 12 – 16.  Any unused fields should be left blank but included as null fields.

FIELD

CSV COLUMN

EXAMPLE

1. (Unique ID /BarCode) Borrower Short Name

A

ANDERL or B9988

2. Surname

B

ANDERSON

3. Given Name

C

LAURENCE

4. Middle Name (only imports initial)

D

WILLIAM

5. Preferred Name (overrides Given)

E

LAURIE

6. Type

F

1

7. Group

G

RED

8. Class

H

10A

9. BirthDate

I

01/01/91

10. Sex

J

M

11. Location

K

BB

12. Address 3 Line 1 (Guardian Name)

L

MR & MRS ANDERSON

13. Address 1 Line 1

M

5/165 King Edward St

14. Address 1 Line 2

N

Bayswater

15. Address 1 Line 3

O

WA

16. P/Z Code

P

6053

17. Address 1 Tel.

Q

08 9462 1111

18. Email

R

laurie@oclc.org

19. (Other ID) Ref2

S

18846

20. Address 3 Line 2

T

8 Osborne Rd.

21. Address 3 Line 3

U

Innaloo

22. Address 3 Line 3 (merges with above)

V

WA

23. Address 3 Postcode/Zip Code

W

6017

24. Address 3 Tel.

X

08 9754 0000

25. Mobile/Cell

Y

0425 113 655

How Records Are Matched

The records will be matched in the following way:

  1. Unique ID/Other ID – If the Unique ID/Other ID (BarCode/Ref2) from the file is found in Borrower, then the information for that patron will be overwritten with the data there, regardless of whether or not the name is the same. So if a student changes their surname, the new surname would come across in the import as long as the Borrower ID/Barcode is identical.
  2. Surname/Given Name – If no matching Borrower ID/BarCode is found, the system will then do a search for any matching surnames and first names. If there is one match found, the system will overwrite that record with the data in your file.
  3. Date of Birth – If more than one match is found for the surname and first name, the system will then try to locate the correct one using the date-of-birth. If a matching date-of-birth for that surname and first name is found, that record is updated. If the birthdates for these Borrowers are null then the Borrowers are considered duplicates (and the system creates a new record with an auto-generated AMLIB BarCode).

In the example below John Goldsmith changed his Surname to Smith. The BarCode in the Amlib borrower record was identical to the Unique Import Key (Unique ID), therefore the details were updated, showing the Borrower details with the new Surname.

Suggested Pre-import Tasks

You may wish to move all year 12 students (or year 6 students – for primary schools) into another class such as Year 13 or Year 7 using Mass Borrower Change. From there you can upgrade all other years and import new students. Any returning year 12 (or 6) students would be updated and moved back to class year 12 (6). All Remainder students can be dealt with as necessary.

Alternatively all students may be mass changed to a generic class via Mass Borrower Change, thus giving all students a single class. When doing then next import, all classes will be changed to the correct class. Any left with the generic class can be dealt with as necessary.

Before starting the import process, check the Type, Group, Class and Location tables in Amlib to ensure all required codes have been created. Check the Location table to ensure that the locations required have a Valid for Borrower setting of Y.

Importing Into Amlib

  1. Launch the Amlib client
  2. Go to Main > Borrowers > BorrowerImport – the Borrower Import screen will display:
  3. Click the F1 Open button – the Import File… screen will display:
  4. Browse to file to be uploaded, select (highlight) it and click on the Open button
  5. Your data will appear in the Borrower Import screen and a prompt will display with the following message: All the Type, Group, Class and Location Codes have been loaded from the Import File. Use the ‘Setup’ menu to assign each Imported Code an equivalent Amlib Code before using the ‘Import’ option to update all the Borrowers.



    The data read from the Borrower Import File can be sorted or have the actions calculated prior to importing the data into Amlib.
  6. To sort: From the menu, select Sort By > and select the sort field – the data can be sorted by Surname, Given name, Borrower Type, Group or Class.
  7. The calculate action option (Table > Calculate Action) will read the import data and state whether each student import will be UPDated, NEW or a DUPlicated student record
  8. If the F4 Import button is greyed out, it indicates the mapping between the imported codes needs to be setup (or adjusted) to match the codes used within Amlib. If it’s is bolded, the skip ahead to step 13
  9. From the menu, select Setup and then select one of the following Borrower fields: Types, Groups, Classes or Locations – in the example below, we have selected Types:


    Please Note: If a selection is greyed out, this indicates there are no codes requiring mapping for that field. Once a field has been successfully mapped a bolded tick will appear at the front of the selection.
  10. A Setup screen will display with two columns: The Imported Type and the Amlib Type. The Imported Type will be the data located in your Borrower Type column (Field 6/CSV column F) of your import file. The Amlib Type will be the codes located in the Main > Borrowers > BorrowerTypes screen.
  11. For each Imported Type, use the Amlib Type drop-down to select a Borrower Type you would like to match (map) it against

    Please Note: It is possible to map more than one Imported Type to the same Amlib Type.
  12. You will need to do this for all the bolded selections in the Setup menu – when you have finished all the fields, they will all have a bolded tick next to them and the F4 Import button will then be active (bolded):
  13. Click the F2 Save to save the Setup for next time. This will save all the mapped codes into a configuration file so that the process does not need to repeated for each import. (The configuration file is AMIMPORT.ini which is saved into the Windows folder. On Vista and Windows 7 it is copied to the Compatibility Files folder

    NOTE: If the F2 Save does NOT successfully save the file each time, it may be because there are NO Write permissions allowed on that file)
  14. Click the F4 Import button – the Borrower Import Files screen will display – this screen allows you to create files to save New, Updated and Duplicate borrowers to. It also allows you to Overwrite Given name(s) and initial(s) and to Use (their) Date of Birth for unique checking.
  15. Type in the filenames, and tick the settings you would like to use, then click the OK button – a prompt will display asking if you wish to save any changed borrowers to a file for recovery purposes: It is recommended that all changed Borrowers be written to a text file for recovery purposes. Do you want to save changed Borrowers to a file?

     

     Caution: This is your insurance for your borrower data and is thoroughly recommended!!

  16. If you click the Yes button, a dialog box will display so that you can choose the file name for your original data and where to save it


    Please Note: In subsequent downloads, the restore.txt or restore.csv file will already exist and a message will display asking if you wish to overwrite this file. You would normally respond Yes to overwrite the file.
  17. Once complete, a prompt will display notifying you that: The Borrower Import is complete.


    Please Note: The import process can take several minutes (for example: 1-3 seconds per borrower). The status of the import displays at the bottom of the screen.
  18. If borrowers with duplicate Borrower IDs are imported, then you will receive notification of this as part of the completion notice: The Borrower Import is complete. Some Duplicate Borrower ID’s were detected – these Borrowers have been saved to the ‘Duplicate ID’ saved file.

File Checking

  1. An Amlib Unique ID (BarCode) was created for the borrower who had the same ID as someone else (AMLIB0000…):
  2. If you go into the main Borrower screen (Main > Borrowers > Borrower) and go to File > DisplayFile you will see your three files for new, updated and duplicate borrowers, and a file for any duplicate IDs if your import had any

Common Errors

This could be caused by either having the information in the correct columns or having headings across the top of your document. Remove any headings and double check your file against the Import formats in this document.

This could be caused by having headings across the top of your import file or it being saved in an incorrect format (for example: .xlsx and not .csv). Please remove any headings, ensuring that it only contains Borrower information and make sure it is in one of the three formats mentioned at the beginning of this document.

Please Note: It is always a good idea to run a Borrower Import on your test databases first, to ensure no errors happen. If you do not have a test databases, please contact Support via one of the above methods to find out how to set one up.

Borrower Import Matching

The following explains the exact method in which Amlib matches on borrower imported records:

  1. Uses the Unique ID to match on Borrower BarCode
  2. If no matches then uses the Unique ID to match on Borrower Ref2
  3. If a Preferred Name has been Supplied:
    • Matches on Surname and Preferred EXACTLY
  4. If 2, matches on Surname and Preferred EXACTLY
  5. If Date-of-Birth Supplied:
    • Searches on Surname, Preferred and Date-of-Birth
  6. If no matches and an Initial has been supplied:
    • Matches on Surname, Preferred and Initial
  7. If no matches and an Initial has NOT been supplied:
    • Matches on Surname, Preferred and NULL Initial
  8. If no Date-of-Birth Supplied:
  9. If no matches and an Initial has been supplied
    • Matches on Surname, Preferred and Initial
  10. If no matches and an Initial has NOT been supplied
    • Matches on Surname, Preferred and NULL Initial
  11. If no matches on Surname and Preferred EXACTLY
    • Searches on Surname EXACTLY and LIKE Preferred (for example: Preferred%)
  12. If no matches then matches on Surname and Given EXACTLY
  13. If 2, matches on Surname and Given EXACTLY
  14. If Date-of-Birth Supplied:
    • Searches on Surname, Given and Date-of-Birth
  15. If no matches and an Initial has been supplied:
    • Matches on Surname, Given and Initial
  16. If no matches and an Initial has NOT been supplied
    • Matches on Surname, Given and NULL Initial
  17. If no Date-of Birth Supplied:
  18. If no matches and an Initial has been supplied:
    • Matches on Surname, Given and Initial
  19. If no matches and an Initial has NOT been supplied:
    • Matches on Surname, Given and NULL Initial
  20. If no matches on Surname and Given EXACTLY
    • Searches on Surname EXACTLY and LIKE Given (for example: Given Name)