Home → Patron Account Management → Managing Existing Patron Accounts → Deleting Patron Accounts
Last Updated 08/28/2025
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Evergreen offers three methods to retrieve patrons: Search for Patrons, Retrieve Last Patron, and Retrieve Recent Patrons. To retrieve patrons via search, select Search for Patrons from the Search menu and fill in patron details in the search form. If a patron returns to the desk after you have closed their account, you can re-open their account by selecting Retrieve Last Patron from the Circulation menu. To retrieve multiple recent patrons, first configure the option in the Library Settings Editor. Once configured, the option to retrieve recent patrons will appear in the Circulation menu.
Patron accounts should not be purged upon notification that a patron has moved or no longer wants their card. Instead, NC Cardinal reccomends deactivating accounts as needed, which allows the accounts to be reactivated, and retains the patron's data for statistical purposes. Purging should happen at regular intervals, and only be applied to accounts that have been inactive for a specified period of time, as determined by your library policies.
After deleting, the patron will no longer be retrieveable. You may be able to get limited information about the patron through a report, but their account CANNOT be reinstated.
To delete patron accounts in batch, see Batch Deleting Users in the User Buckets chapter.
Note: In some cases, such as when an item was lost and the transaction for the item was not properly closed out before the item was deleted, you may be blocked from purging the patron's account with no indication as to why. If this is the case, submit a help ticket to request that the account be deleted.