Data Retention Recommendations - Patrons

The WYLD Office surveyed member libraries during the winter of 2024 regarding retention of patron data, including bills (paid and unpaid) and holds (active and inactive).  Subsequently, the WYLD Office met with representatives from the Wyoming State Archives to clarify official data retention schedules regarding patron and financial data as applied to library information. 

Summary - Patron data should be maintained for a minimum of 3 years, with the exception of any temporary records, if appropriate.  Financial data should be retained for 7 fiscal years, but can be stored offline.

State Archives Recommendation for managing data

In order to accommodate the various data purge policies and workflows implemented by individual libraries as well as the retention periods required by Local Government Retention Schedules, the Wyoming State Archives recommends libraries complete the following steps prior to purging patron accounts:

• Review patron accounts that are eligible for destruction (aka deletion) based on the schedule Patron Management ADM-ALM-05 and the individual library’s data purge policy.
• Identify billing information associated with any patron account that is eligible for destruction.
• Export any bills that have not completed the FYE 7 retention period required by the schedule Accounts Receivable and Revenue FIN-ACC-12. (To simplify this, libraries can export all bills that were created less than 8 years before the planned purge date.)
  • Exported billing information should include adequate information to identify a requested record and reconcile the bill if needed. At a minimum, we recommend including the date of the bill, patron barcode, bill amount, and bill status.
• Retain exported bill records in a secure location until they complete the FYE 7 retention period; document approved destruction once the records complete their retention requirements.
• Bills that have completed the required FYE 7 retention period do not need to be exported and can be purged with the rest of the eligible patron account.
• In order to adequately document the destruction of these records, libraries may wish to export a summary report of the number/volume of billing records that have completed their required retention and will be purged with the eligible patron accounts and the date range of the records.
• Purge the patron accounts that are eligible for destruction and document the approved destruction.
• Retain the destruction log indefinitely to address any future questions.

Definitions - WY-Local_Gov_RRS_2022-05-23.pdf

• ADM-ALM-05- Archives, Library and Museum Management (ALM) - Patron Management:   Patron information is retained for at least three years after completion.
  • “Completion” for patron information is generally considered the last date of activity (checkout, renewal, database login, etc.). When a patron account has not had any activity for at least three years, the patron data is eligible for destruction based on this schedule.
• FIN-ACC-12 - Financial and Accounting (FIN) - Accounts Receivable and Revenue:

Records related to the control of recoverable amounts and potential revenues including revenue and suspense accounts, recoverable amounts, etc.  Retain 7 years after the fiscal year end, then destroy

Bills to patrons regarding overdue or missing items are retained for seven years after the fiscal year ends under this schedule.

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Survey Questions asked:

BILLS

There are over 1.6 million bill records in WYLD (202,000 unpaid bills).  *SirsiDynix recommends less than 1.5 million bill records on a system.

What is the maximum amount of time your library needs to retain bills that have been paid in full?

Most common responses - 1 year (32%), 3 years (26%), 5 years (18%)

If you need to retain paid bills longer than 5 years, please tell us why

Several libraries cited the Wyoming State Archives retention schedules.  

HOLDS

How long do you keep available holds on your library’s hold shelf?

Most common responses were 1 to 2 weeks

These values have been updated in the library policy so that the Manage Hold shelf wizard now shows an expiration date for available holds.  *Holds are not removed when they expire.  Staff must remove them or use the Clean Holds Shelf report to remove them.

How long should holds remain active? Currently, unfilled holds do not expire for one year.

Most common responses were 6 months (53%) and 12 months (32%)

The Expire Holds Report selects active holds for which the date the hold expires has passed and sets the hold status to INACTIVE with a hold inactive reason of EXPIRED. *This report can also generate an expired hold notification for patrons.

How long should cancelled holds remain in the system?

Most common responses were 1 month (45%), 6 months (26%), and 3 months (13%)

*Cancelled holds do not appear as active holds, so staff may not see these unless they change their wizard properties.  Cancelled holds are purged at 6 months

How long should filled holds remain in the system?

Most common responses were 1 month (32%), 3 months (29%), and 6 months (21%)

Filled holds are no longer active and will not show in staff properties are set to only display active holds. 

Filled holds are purged at 6 months.

What is the maximum amount of time that patrons should be able to suspend their holds?

Most common responses were 3 months (53%) and 6 months (32%)