Patron Attributes in KOHA

If we want to add some  additional fields like Blood Group, Admission Number etc. in patron's details, we can use patron attributes.In order to enable the use of custom fields you need to set the ExtendedPatronAttributes in system preference

Then Go to
Administration > Patrons & Circulation > Patron attribute types

Create a new patron attribute type there.
We can choose an attribute for a particular category of user. For example, the patron attribute namely Admission Number can be restricted to students only.

Bulk upload of patron attributes

When uploading the patron details in bulk, we have to use a specific format.

1. The Column name in CSV file shall be "patron_attributes"

2. A comma separated value for each patron attribute may be created.

 i.e if we are using blood group (code: BGR) and Admission number (code :ADNO) the data in the column should be "BGR: O+ve,ADNO:UG180004"

How to create an attribute file 

The first row of the csv file should be the name of fields to be uploaded. The fields like surname, cardnumber, categorycode and branchcode are mandatory. 

For preparing a file with patron attributes, we can use the "concatenate" option in the excel.

Add the patron attribute code in a column say BGR. column A2 is BGR and B2 is O+ve. select the column C2. type the following syntax in the formula bar

=CONCATENATE(A1,":",B2)

the result will be BGR:O+ve

similiarly we can use the concatenate command to combine different columns in excel and then save it as CSV file.