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Student Access Initiative
1. Student Access
1.1. Student Access Overview
General Information
Accounts for students and teachers will be added to the patron database for participating libraries automatically. These new Student Access (School) accounts utilize the school identification number as the patron barcode, are assigned to the School permission group, and do not replace existing library patron cards for students or teachers. Student Access/School accounts should never be merged with another patron account.
If a Student Access patron requests a standard library card so that they may have access to materials they cannot circulate with their Student Access account (as noted below), staff should create a new, separate library account using their standard barcode range and assign it to the appropriate patron permission group (usually Juvenile/Teen for students or Adult for teachers), as they normally would for any other patron. In short, when a library system is participating in the Student Access program, students and teachers within the system may now have two patron records, a standard (Juvenile/Teen/Adult) library account and the new Student Access account assigned to the permission group of School.
Public, charter, and private schools are all welcome to join the program. Ideally, the students and staff of private and charter schools will have DPI issued IDs, to ensure that there is no duplication within Cardinal. If the school does not have DPI issued IDs, please discuss with a Cardinal team member to come to an agreement on how to modify the IDs (e.g. with a prefix or suffix) to ensure lack of duplication.
General Program Goals
- Access to statewide online library resources across the consortium
- Access to locally-purchased online research databases and other e-materials, specifically e-books and e-audiobooks
- Ability to check out e-books, audiobooks, and for some systems, print books
Data Security Standards for Third-Party Data Integration
In the summer of 2023, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) implemented a new process for Public School Unit (PSU) third party vendor integration that aligned with the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (DIT) data security standards for third party integrations with state systems. This new process involved the addition of a not insignificant number of new documents to be signed and procedures to be followed before third parties could be integrated with state systems. This understandably led to some confusion and concern among school systems and member libraries.
However, because NC Cardinal is also a state agency operating under these same DIT guidelines, we are exempt from these additional requirements. Therefore nothing has changed for member libraries and school systems with regard to how they implement or take part in the Student Access program. A document listing NC Cardinal as exempt from this process can be found here, and member libraries may wish to share it with school systems. You will find NC Cardinal listed under "Student Data Integrations" beneath question 1.
1.2. Setting Up Student Access for Your Library
Student Access Program Checklist
- Contact the local school system and gauge interest. If interested, establish a contact within the school system who will be responsible for providing the appropriate student information in the requested format
- Get local government approval and/or library board approval to proceed
- Complete a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between your library and school
- Create file of student and teacher records
- Send file to NC Cardinal Staff by mid-September (fluid deadline date).
- Contact your online resource vendors to make sure student ID numbers will be able to be authenticated
- Create the opt-out form for students/parents in all necessary languages
- Designate responsible party for printing, distributing, and collecting opt-out forms
- Set up times to meet with school personnel to make them aware of the program and request their assistance with implementation/usage (i.e. system-wide principals’ and media coordinators’ meetings)
- Put together a descriptive, yet simple newsletter explaining the project to distribute at administrators’ meetings
- Put together a packet of information describing in detail the resources available to students to hand out to media coordinators/teachers
- Conduct open houses at local libraries where students and their parents can learn more about the program, how to use it, and how they can benefit from it
- PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE
- School open houses
- Lunch hour at schools
- Curriculum nights
- Fall festivals
- Sporting events
Process Considerations
- Requirement: Create one permission group for students and teachers titled “School”.
- Requirement: E-book vendors must be integrated into the project to define and specify access methods, for example Overdrive and Baker & Taylor. Either a proxy server or the vendor will include the school ID ranges in their configuration files.
- Requirement: Re-barcode colliding (conflicting) existing patron barcodes. There are 122 patron barcodes that would need to be changed within NC Cardinal to accommodate 10-digit Student IDs. These patron barcodes would be manually re-barcoded or deleted if necessary.
Barcode Policy
- New NC Cardinal policy: patron barcodes must be 12 or more in length.
Timeline
|
August-September 20 |
Libraries work with schools, creating files of student and teacher IDs as well as all necessary paperwork. |
|
September 20— 29 |
Scrutiny of all student/teacher files. All relevant hold and circulation policies created/entered into Evergreen TEST environment. Data ingestion begins. |
|
October 1 |
Student Access accounts Go Live! |
Documentation
Templates and sample documents were created for libraries to review and customize for their use and are located here:
- Memorandum of Agreement template for participating Library Systems and their School organizations.
- Sample Parent Opt-out Letter or Opt-out letter.
- Sample student and teacher import file.
1.3. Sending Data Feeds
Data Requirements
- Student information consists of fields on the patron registration window. Initial files will be bulk loaded into NC Cardinal.
- Data will be able to be updated in bulk quarterly; Uploads could include additions or deletions of student IDs (and incremental uploads).
File Format
Each participating library must obtain a file of student and teacher records from their participating School System. The file is due to NC Cardinal Staff mid-September (fluid deadline date). NC Cardinal Staff will supplement the files with additional information and ingest the data files ourselves. The file must be in comma-delimited format and have the following fields, in the designated order:
File Mapping:
- Mandatory information is needed to create student/teacher accounts.
- Strongly preferred information is not strictly speaking mandatory, but it is requested so that the library has a means of contacting the patron should it be necessary.
- Preferred information is requested (such as Guardian and Gender) but could be omitted due to missing information from parent/guardian to school when registering for classes.
Please note that the student file template does not include the Evergreen field or Notes columns.
Other File Information
Additional fields will be added to each school file by NC Cardinal Staff:
- Privilege Expiration Date will default to October 1st of the following year.
- Password default is the last 4 digits of the Student or Teacher ID.
- “Home Library” default will be the relevant Library System’s main branch unless Library System notifies NC Cardinal Staff to customize the import file records.
File Submission Process
We want to be sure to protect the privacy of the data that you are providing. There are a few different ways that you can supply us with the student/teacher file.
If you would like to submit a password protected Excel file, the instructions for doing so can be found here. You could then call Will Szwagiel at 919-814-6721 to provide the password for the file.
Alternatively, you could put the data into a private Google Sheet and then share the sheet only with nccardinalprojectmngr@gmail.com.
If you have other suggestions for ways you would like to transmit the data, please let us know.
After files have been scrutinized, files will convert to .csv format and then be ingested into NC Cardinal's Evergreen Patron database.
You may also choose to generate and upload these data files yourself instead of submitting them to NC Cardinal. Instructions for doing so can be found at this page.
1.4. Uploading Data Feeds Directly
Uploading Data Feeds Directly by Secure File Transport (SFTP)
Available as of Fall 2020, library systems may generate and upload their data files themselves on whatever basis they so choose. Each system who does their loads in this way should designate one person to be the one responsible for uploading the data. This helps to keep information secure (both the student information and the FTP information) and to make the process faster, more efficient, and automatic for the system. It will also let the Cardinal team know to whom to reach out in case of issues, as the Evergreen result email notifications will still be sent to the Cardinal team.
Public Key
To begin the SFTP set up process, the interested library will need to generate and share a public encryption key which will be added to the Evergreen server to allow staff members to authenticate and upload feeds.
Directions for Windows users can be found here (but do not specify a password/passphrase).
Alternatively, MacOS/Linux users can type "ssh-keygen -t rsa".
In both cases, an RSA key should be generated, and a password/passphrase is not needed. The library system (or designated staff member) will then need to share the RSA public key with NC Cardinal, either copied and pasted out of PuTTYgen for Windows users, or the ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub file on MacOS/Linux. Your private key will remain on your computer.
SFTP Software
Any SFTP software will work, and WinSCP and FileZilla are popular choices.
https://winscp.net/eng/download.php
https://filezilla-project.org/
Here are FileZilla directions for adding to FileZilla the private key that was created earlier.
https://filezillapro.com/docs/v3/advanced/ssh-private-keys-for-sftp/
Connecting to the Server and Uploading a File
Once your public key is registered on the server, you can connect set up the connection using the following settings: (This screenshot is the configuration using WinSCP)
Rather than using a password, you point the SFTP software to your local private key (it should essentially be a text file with a .ppk file extension)
The SFTP connection should have the following details:
host: 52.23.227.84
port: 22
user: externaldata
path: /home/externaldata/uploads/student_csv_import
Upload your .csv file(s) to the /uploads/ folder, and avoid uploading directories. Only .csv files are processed. Uploaded files are moved out of /uploads/ every 5 minutes and processed every 10 minutes, so the process can take 10-11 minutes to be handled.
Example screenshot of Filezilla file transfer window:
Example screenshot of Default Remote Directory setting in FileZilla’s Site Manager:
A member of the NC Cardinal team and the library system's designated staff member can schedule a phone call or online video conference to walk through adding a file from the library system's set up together.
File set up and naming conventions
There are two columns to add to the data set from the template file shared here.
They are columns for “Home Library” and “County” – county is self-explanatory, but for the home library you will need to use the capitalized "shortname" branch code for the branch or main library that will be the Home Library of the students. For regional library systems, Home Library may be decided in each county. For example, Appalachian Regional Library (ARL) uses ASHE as Home Library for Ashe County, WATAUGA for Watauga, etc. HENDERSON_MAIN is home library for Henderson County Public Library system.
If you do not have data for each column, that is ok – still include it with the header, the rest can be blank. The software needs to import columns A-P in the template order regardless. The most important columns that need to be filled in are ID, first and last name, and DOB.
It is important to note that the software uses a date prefix on each file to assign expiration dates for accounts. Each year these are updated, but the format is yearmonthday, no dashes or spaces, like this: 20241001.
We use October 1st as the expiration date to allow for time in the beginning of fall semesters for account updates by way of file uploads. It is very helpful to have the file name reflect the system in question so if there are any errors the Cardinal team can notify the right person. With this information in mind, a file name would ideally look something like: 20241001_Davidson_students.csv
1.5. Student Access Circulation and Hold Policies
Student Access Account Restrictions
School accounts have restrictions within NC Cardinal:
- Student Access accounts will have the ability to place holds and borrow items from their local library system
- Items may include electronic resources and/or print materials.
- Not every system allows Student Access accounts to check out physical books. This decision is made individually by each system. Patrons may check with their library to determine what their specific policy is.
- Student Access accounts will not be able to place holds outside of their home system
- If a system allows the circulation of physical materials, the checkout limit is a maximum of 10 print and/or audiobooks
- No overdue fines will be charged for Student Access accounts
- The patron/parents of Student Access accounts will be responsible for lost or damaged materials fees
- DVDs are not included in this project and will not be available for check out using Student Access accounts
- All Student Access accounts will be identified by the permission group “School”. This permission group includes both teacher and student records.
Hold/Circulation Policies
- NC Cardinal will make all changes to hold/circ policies to impose limits on Student Access accounts.
- All other existing circulation policies will remain in place for Student Access accounts.
Lost/Damaged Items
- Libraries will work with schools to track lost/damaged item fees.
- School accounts will be blocked based on library’s current policies – nothing different.
Hold Policy Requirements
- NC Cardinal Staff create specific hold and circulation policies for “School” permission group.
- Holds and circulation policies will limit student circulation to books (when applicable), e-books, e-audiobooks, and internet use.
- Hold policies will limit hold requests to items owned by owning library system only.
Circulation Policy Requirements
- DVDs are not included in this project and will not be available for check out using Student Access accounts .
- Students can borrow up to 10 print items (when applicable).
Library Staff Policy
- Staff Permission Group of Circulation Supervisor, Systems Administration, or Cataloging Supervisor may edit student and teacher accounts. Note that any changes made to an account will be overridden once a new student or teacher file is uploaded.
Fines/Fees
- No overdue fines will be charged for Student Access accounts.
- Student Access accounts will be responsible for lost or damaged books fees.
1.6. Promoting Student Access
Implementation of Student Access Initiative
Now that you have your Student Access accounts created, how do you get engagement from the community? In the fall of 2020, we asked everyone who is currently participating to share their tips and tricks. Thanks to all of the great contributions!
Basic process
- Have a director, assistant director, technology coordinator, or other staff member coordinate with the school system to get the student data uploaded.
- Promote the service via flyers, word of mouth, and in-person presentations*
- Communicate with patrons when they come into the library —let them know they can log in to our computers AND access our digital content with their Power School number.
*School visits are reported to be very effective. According to Neuse Regional, last year they were able to massively increase our eBook (and to a slightly lesser extent online database) usage by giving students in classroom demonstrations of how to use their Student Access number to login. This also helped them to develop a face to face relationship with our points of contact at the school systems. These classroom visits do require some willingness on the part of the school system to help set them up, but there is usually at least one (if not more) administrators and/or media specialists who recognize how valuable the resources accessed through the program are and are eager to help systems get into classrooms to start demonstrating how to access resources.
Issues that may arise, and what to do
Lack of awareness with parents. Attending open houses at schools was proven most effective when situated beside the bus assignment line, which can be slow and allow time for the representative to approach parents in line with bookmarks and talk about the program. Most were unaware. When we’ve been in the gymnasium with lots of other tables, the noise is such that it is nearly impossible to have a conversation, so even at the open house events: location can be key.
Reticence of media specialists, who may believe the program will require a larger workload. Cultivating relationships through increased conversation with teachers and media specialists, as well as school administration, is always helpful. During the pandemic it has proven especially useful, as everyone was scrambling to have meaningful online content for students. Getting school administration on board is helpful as they can facilitate getting us invited to meetings and staff days.
Communication hiccups. It can be very helpful to create a document listing the contact for each school system. We always think we'll remember who those people are from year-to-year, but having a document handy can save a lot of time.
Resources
Henderson County Student Access Libguide — the FAQ section has proven especially helpful
Neuse Library Student Access Libguide
Carteret County Student Access Libguide
Documents attached to this page for download are templates for flyers, opt-out letters, and other marketing options.
1.7. Student Access Documentation
Documentation for participating in the Student Access Initiative.
Available for downloading are the following documents :
MoA (Memorandum of Agreement)
Student File Template (Excel format)
Graphics (Transparent, White_Background.jpg, and also White Background.png)
Iredell opt-out and newsletter
1.8. Student Access Participants
The following library systems are participating in the Student Access Initiative:
Appalachian Regional Library System (Ashe, Watauga, and Wilkes Counties)
BHM Regional Library System (Beaufort, Hyde, and Martin Counties)
Bladen County Library System
Braswell Memorial Library System (Nash County)
Buncombe County Library System
Carteret County Library System
Cleveland County Library System
Cumberland County Library
Davidson County Library System
Davie County Library System
Fontana Regional Library System (Jackson, Macon, and Swain Counties)
Forsyth County Public Library
Franklin County Library System
Harnett County Library System
Henderson County Library System
Iredell County Library System
Lee County Library System
Madison County Public Library
Mauney Memorial Library (Cleveland County)
McDowell County Library System
Neuse Regional Library System (Greene, Jones, and Lenoir Counties)
NWRL Regional Library System (Alleghany, Stokes, Surry, and Yadkin Counties)
Perry Memorial Library
Person County Public Library
Polk County Library System
Public Library of Johnston County and Smithfield (excluding Clayton)
Rockingham County Library System
Rutherford County Library System
Sampson-Clinton Library System
Sandhill Regional Library System (Anson, Hoke, Montgomery, Moore, Richmond)
Scotland County Library System
Transylvania County Library System
Wayne County Library System
* Participation is dependent on schools and their partnership with the library system. It is possible that a school within a library's proximity or district may not be currently participating in the initiative.