Consortium manager
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The Consortium manager app allows libraries to share data and settings between multiple FOLIO tenants. A FOLIO tenant must be implemented with Enhanced Consortial Support (ECS) enabled in order to use Consortium manager. For more information about setting up an ECS-enabled tenant, see Steps to setup Consortia environment.
Definitions of terms related to Consortium manager:
- Affiliation: Association with a given tenant (e.g. a user’s “active affiliation” is the tenant in which the user is currently working)
- Central tenant: The administrative tenant when Enhanced Consortial Support (ECS) is enabled.
- Client: A library or a branch library.
- Consortium: An association of independent libraries and/or library systems established by formal agreement, usually for the purpose of resource sharing. Membership may be restricted to a specific geographic region, type of library (public, academic, special), or subject specialization.
- Enhanced Consortial Support (ECS): The underlying architecture that defines the relationship and interactions among multiple tenants.
- Member: An independent library’s or library system’s FOLIO tenant affiliated with a consortium in Consortium manager.
- Permission: A setting that allows users to perform specific functions in FOLIO.
- Permission set: A set of individual permissions.
- Primary tenant: A user’s home tenant; the tenant in which the user’s record was initially created in FOLIO.
- Shadow account: A user record existing outside of a member’s primary tenant. A shadow account is automatically created when a user record is affiliated with a member library in the consortium that is not that user’s primary affiliation.
- Shared: Settings that are shared between member libraries and managed at the central consortium level (e.g. shared settings, shared Instances)
- Service Point: A setting that libraries configure to support circulation functions. Each library must set up at least one service point.
- Tenant: A FOLIO client whose data are stored separately and are accessible and visible separately from other FOLIO clients.
Permissions
The permissions listed below allow the user to interact with the Consortium manager app and determine what the user can and cannot do within the app. If none of these permissions are assigned to a user, they are unable to see the Consortium manager app or any related consortial information.
For general information about permissions, see Platform Essentials > Permissions.
The following are the permissions for Consortium manager:
- Consortia API module - all permissions. This permission allows the user to use the Consortia API module to add or remove members in Consortium manager.
- Consortia: Assign and unassign affiliations. This permission allows the user to add or remove affiliations of other users.
- Consortia: View affiliations. This permission allows the user to view the affiliations of other users.
- Consortium manager: Can create, edit and remove settings. This permission allows the user to perform build, create, edit and delete actions via the Consortia manager BUT the user must have the correct permissions in individual tenants to carry out these actions.
- Consortium manager: Can share settings to all members. This permission allows a user to create settings that will be shared by all members and is only editable in the central tenant.
- Consortium manager: Can view existing settings. This permission allows a user to view all the settings of members they are affiliated with via the consortia manager.
- Inventory: Share local instance with consortium. This permission allows a user to share local instance records with consortium members.
Members
To view membership in Consortium manager, the user must be affiliated with the primary tenant of the consortium. To view membership, follow these steps:
- Select the primary tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected.
- To switch the active affiliation, click on the service point menu in the top right corner of the screen.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- Click on the Select members.
- In the Select members window, the list of members in the consortia is displayed.
Members cannot currently be added or removed in Consortium manager, but membership details can be edited. For more information about editing membership, see Edit member details.
User type
User records include the same fields in all FOLIO tenants. However, user type is a required field for user records in an ECS-enabled environment.
In Consortium manager, user types include:
- Staff: Users who are employed by a library and must log into FOLIO to conduct library work. Staff accounts are assigned a primary tenant and a unique username. If the staff account is affiliated with multiple tenants, the username is used to log in at a single service point.
- Patron: Users who borrow library items. Patrons have user records in the Users app but do not log into FOLIO to manage their library accounts. They are assigned a primary tenant only and do not have any assigned affiliations or user permissions for other tenants in the consortium.
- Shadow: Shadow accounts serve as a representation of a user record and are automatically created by the FOLIO system in the central tenant whenever a staff user record is created. Shadow accounts display a user’s assigned permissions for a member tenant and allow management of permissions for the user record outside of the central tenant. If an affiliation is removed, the shadow account becomes inactive. If the staff user is deleted from their primary tenant, all of the user’s shadow accounts are also deleted from the member tenants.
- System: At least one system-level account must be in place in order to assign other roles and permissions.
For more information about creating a new user record manually, see Users > Creating a user record manually.
For more information about editing user records, see User > Edit a user record.
Affiliations
In an ECS-enabled tenant, each user must have an affiliation with at least one member library. The tenant in which the user record is initially created serves as the primary affiliation. When a user logs into FOLIO, the primary affiliation is set to active and displays in the top right corner of the screen.
When working in an active affiliation, the local data in that tenant is displayed as well as any data shared across the consortium.
Assign an affiliation
When a user record is created in an ECS-enabled environment, the user is automatically affiliated with the tenant in which the user record was created. This affiliation is the user’s primary affiliation.
To assign an additional affiliation to a user record, follow these steps:
- Search for the user record. For more information, see Users > Search for user records. Select the user record. It will open in a new pane.
- Click Actions > Edit to edit the user record.
- Open the Affiliations accordion.
- Click the Assign/unassign button.
- Check the box next to the Name of the member to assign the affiliation. One or more affiliations can be assigned in this step.
- Click Save & close.
Unassign an affiliation
A user’s primary affiliation and affiliation with the central tenant cannot be removed or changed, but affiliation with other members can be unassigned. Doing so sets the user’s status to Inactive for that member.
To unassign an affiliation with a member, follow these steps:
- Search for the user record. For more information, see Users > Search for user records. Select the user record. It will open in a new pane.
- Click Actions > Edit to edit the user record.
- Open the Affiliations accordion. The user’s primary affiliation appears in bold type.
- Click the Assign/unassign button.
- Find the member in the Affiliations window or use the Search & filter pane to search for a member or filter the list by Affiliation assignment status.
- Uncheck the box next to the Name of the member to unassign, or remove, the affiliation. One or more affiliations to member libraries, excluding the primary affiliation and affiliation with central tenant, can be unassigned in this step.
- Click Save & close.
Assign or unassign user permissions for an affiliation
Users may be assigned permissions for any assigned affiliations. To manage user permissions for an affiliation, the process is similar to doing so for a user record in an individual tenant, except the Affiliation option is displayed in the Permissions accordion of the user record and the appropriate affiliation must be selected. For more information on assigning or unassigning permissions, see Users > Assign or unassign permissions.
To assign affiliation permissions to a user record, go to the Users app and follow these steps:
- Search for the user record. For more information, see Users > Search for user records. Select the user record. It will open in a new pane.
- Click Actions > Edit to edit the user record.
- Expand the User permissions accordion.
- Select the Affiliation from the drop-down menu.
- Click on Add permissions.
- Select the permission(s) to assign by checking the box next to the permission or permission set name. You can also search and filter for a permission or permission set in the Search & filter pane and check the box next to its name in the Permissions pane.
- Click Save & close to save the permissions to the user record.
To remove affiliation permissions from a user’s record, go to the Users app and follow these steps:
- Search for the user record. For more information, see Users > Search for user records for user records.
- Select the user record. It will open in a new pane.
- Click Actions > Edit.
- Expand the User permissions accordion.
- Select the Affiliation in the Affiliation drop-down menu.
- Unassign permissions by any of these methods:
- Click on the X icon next to a permission to remove the permission for that affiliation.
- Or click on Add permission and uncheck the box next to Name in the Permissions window to unassign all of the permissions for that affiliation with one click.
- To remove all permissions for an affiliation, click on the Unassign all permissions button or unassign the affiliation. All permissions are removed for that user in that member’s tenant.
- Click Save & close to save the changes to the user record.
Shared Settings
In Consortium manager, some settings can be modified and centrally managed for all member libraries through the Share option. By sharing settings, member libraries apply a controlled vocabulary to ensure consistency in library records and transactions across the consortium.
The sharing option cannot be edited once the setting is initially created and saved. To change the sharing option in a setting, each of the relevant settings must first be deleted and then a new setting created with the appropriate sharing option. The Share option must be set when the setting is created and saved, and cannot be edited after the setting is initially saved. If Share is selected, the data fields, Source, Member libraries, and Update display as consortium, ALL, and System Consortia, respectively, indicating the setting can be managed in Consortium manager.
If a setting is not shared, it serves as a local setting for a specific member library in the consortium regardless of which member tenant was used to create it.
Shared settings are available in Consortium manager for these FOLIO apps:
Circulation
For resource sharing purposes, shared settings allow the same Request cancellation reasons to be used by all members.
To create a shared setting for Circulation, follow these steps:
- In the Settings pane, select Circulation
- In the Circulation pane, select Request cancellation reasons.
- Click the New button in the Request cancellation reasons pane.
- Fill out the Cancel reason, Description (internal), and Description (public) fields.
- Check the box next to Share.
- Click on Save in the Actions column.
- A Confirm share to all window appears with the message, Are you sure you want to share (Name of Note) with ALL members?
- Click Confirm to save the shared Circulation note.
To create a local (unshared) setting for Circulation, follow these steps:
- In the Settings pane, select Circulation
- In the Circulation pane, select Request cancellation reasons.
- Click on the Select members button in the Request cancellation reasons pane. Check the box in the Name column next to the member’s name to select the member for whom the local (unshared) setting will be created.
- Confirm the number of selected members. In the Settings for selected members can be modified at the same time window, the number of members selected will display at the top of the window.
- Click the New button in the Request cancellation reasons pane.
- Fill out the Cancel reason, Description (internal), and Description (public) fields.
- Do not check the box next to Share.
- Click on Save in the Actions column.
- A Confirm member libraries window appears with the message, (Name of Note) will be saved for the member libraries with an accompanying list of members.
- Click Confirm to save the local Circulation note.
Data Export
For troubleshooting purposes, the central tenant can view data export logs in another member’s tenant.
To view a data export log for a member library, follow these steps:
- Select the central, or primary, tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected. If the central tenant is not selected:
- Click on the user profile icon in the top right corner of the screen to switch the active affiliation.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- In Consortium manager, select Data export in the Settings pane.
- In the Data export pane, select the Member for which you wish to view the logs.
- The Data export logs are listed in the Data export pane with these identifiers:
- File name: File name assigned by the FOLIO system.
- Status: Completed, Fail, or Completed with errors
- Total: Number of records requested for export
- Exported: Number of records exported
- Failed: Number of records not exported successfully
- Job profile: Description of data export job
- Ended running: Date and time the data export job finished
- Run by: FOLIO username of user who ran the data export job
- ID: Number assigned to the data export log by the FOLIO system
Data Import
For troubleshooting purposes, the central tenant can view imported records in another member’s tenant.
To view a data import log for a member library, follow these steps:
- Select the central, or primary, tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected. If the central tenant is not selected:
- Click on the user profile icon in the top right corner of the screen to switch the active affiliation.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- In Consortium manager, select Data import in the Settings pane.
- In the Data import pane, select the Member for which you wish to view the logs.
- The Data import logs are listed in the Data import pane with these identifiers:
- File name: File name assigned by the FOLIO system.
- Status: Completed, Fail, or Completed with errors
- Records: Number of records imported
- Job profile: Description of data import job
- Started running: Date and time the data import job started
- Ended running: Date and time the data import job finished
- Run by: FOLIO username of user who ran the data import job
- ID: Number assigned to the data import log by the FOLIO system
Inventory
For Inventory purposes, shared settings allow the following Inventory settings to be used by all member libraries:
Instances
- Alternative title types
- Classification identifier types
- Contributor types
- Formats
- Instance note types
- Instance status types
- Modes of issuance
- Nature of content
- Resource identifier types
- Resource types
Holdings
- Holdings note types
- Holdings types
Items
- Item note types
- Loan types
- Material types
Instances, Holdings, Items
- Statistical code types
- Statistical codes
- URL relationship
Holdings, Items
- Call number types
To create a shared setting for Inventory, follow these steps:
- In the Settings pane, select Inventory
- In the Inventory pane, select the appropriate setting in the Instances, Holdings, Items, Instances, Holdings, Items or Holdings, Items sections.
- Click on the Select members button in the Request cancellation reasons pane. Check the box in the Name column next to the member’s name to select the member for whom the local (unshared) setting will be created.
- Confirm the number of selected members. In the Settings for selected members can be modified at the same time window, the number of members selected will display at the top of the window.
- Click the New button.
- Fill out the Name field for the new setting.
- Check the box next to Share.
- Click on Save in the Actions column.
- A Confirm share to all modal appears with the message, Are you sure you want to share (Name of Inventory Setting) with ALL members?.
- Click Keep editing to make additional changes or click Confirm to save the setting. A (Name of Inventory Setting) successfully created for ALL libraries appears in the bottom right corner.
To create a local (unshared) setting for Inventory, follow these steps:
- In the Settings pane, select Inventory
- In the Inventory pane, select the appropriate setting in the Instances, Holdings, Items, Instances, Holdings, Items or Holdings, Items sections.
- Click on the Select members button. Check the box next to the Name to select the member for whom the local (unshared) setting will be created. More than one member may be selected. To select all members, check the box next to Name.
- Confirm the number of selected members. In the Settings for selected members can be modified at the same time window, the number of members selected will display at the top of the window.
- Click the New button.
- Fill out the Name field for the new Instance note..
- Leave the box next to Share empty.
- Click on Save in the Actions column.
- A Confirm member libraries window appears with the message, (Name of Note) will be saved for the member libraries with an accompanying list of members.
- Click Confirm to save the local (unshared) setting.
Users
For user management and consortium management purposes, shared settings allow members to view, edit, and compare Permission sets, Patron groups, and Departments for all member libraries.
Permission sets
To view shared permissions, follow these steps:
- Select the central, or primary, tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected. If the central tenant is not selected, switch the active affiliation.
- Click on the user profile icon in the top right corner of the screen to switch the active affiliation.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- In Consortium manager, select Users in the Settings pane.
- In the Users pane, select Permission sets.
- In the Permission sets pane, select the Member for which you wish to view the assigned permission set(s) from the drop-down menu. If the member is not displayed as an option, click on the Select members button and check the box next to the member’s Name in the Select members window.
- Select the Permission set to view its General information, including Permission set name and Description, Assigned permissions, and Assigned users in a new pane.
- Expand the Assigned permissions accordion to view the list of permissions included in the permission set.
To create a shared permission, follow these steps:
- Select the central tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected. If the central tenant is not selected, switch the active affiliation.
- Click on the user profile icon in the top right corner of the screen to switch the active affiliation.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- In Consortium manager, select Users in the Settings pane.
- In the Users pane, select Permission sets.
- In the Permission sets pane, click ** the Select members button and check the box next to the name of each member for which the new permission will be created.
- Click Actions > New.
- In the New permission set window, add the Permission set name and a Description.
- Click the Add permission button. The new permission is added for each member in the consortium.
To compare shared user permission sets between two members, follow these steps:
- Select the central, or primary, tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected. If the central tenant is not selected, switch the active affiliation.
- Click on the user profile icon in the top right corner of the screen to switch the active affiliation.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- Select Users in the Settings pane.
- In the Users pane, select Permission sets.
- In the Permission sets pane, click the Actions button and select Compare.
- The Compare window is divided into 2 panes, one for each member. Select the Member and Permission set for each member as appropriate.
- The lists of assigned permissions are compared side-by-side in the Assigned permissions accordion. Any assigned permissions that are unique to a member tenant are highlighted in yellow. Any assigned permissions that are common between member tenants are not highlighted.
To edit permissions assigned to a shared user permission set, follow these steps:
- Select the central, or primary, tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected. If the central tenant is not selected, switch the active affiliation.
- Click on the user profile icon in the top right corner of the screen to switch the active affiliation.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- In Consortium manager, select Users in the Settings pane.
- In the Users pane, select Permission sets.
- In the Permission sets pane, select the Member for which you wish to view the assigned permission set(s).
- Select the Permission set to view its General information, including Permission set name and Description, Assigned permissions, and Assigned users.
- Expand the Assigned permissions accordion to view the list of permissions included in the permission set.
- Select the permission set. The permission set will open in a new pane.
- Click on the Edit button in the top right corner of the permission set pane. A new Edit: [Permission name] window opens.
- Expand the Assigned permissions accordion and click on the Add permission button. In the new window, select the appropriate permissions to add to the permission set by searching and filtering or checking the box by the permission’s name. More than one permission may be added to the permission set in this step.
- Click Save & close.
To remove, or unassign, a permission from a permission set:
- Expand the Assigned permissions accordion and click on the Add permission button. In the new window, uncheck the box next to the name of the permission to remove it from the permission set. More than one permission may be removed from the permission set in this step.
- Click Save & close.
To remove or unassign all permissions in the permission set:
- Click on the Unassign all permissions button.
- Click Save & close.
For more information about creating, editing, assigning, and unassigning permissions, see Users > Permissions.
To assign or unassign shared permissions to a user:
- Select the central, or primary, tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected. If the central tenant is not selected, switch the active affiliation.
- Click on the user profile icon in the top right corner of the screen to switch the active affiliation.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- In Consortium manager, select Users in the Settings pane.
- In the Users pane, select Permission sets.
- In the Permission sets pane, select the Member for which you wish to view the assigned permission set(s).
- Select the Permission set to view its General information, including Permission set name and Description, Assigned permissions, and Assigned users.
- Expand the Assigned users accordion to view the list of users who have the permission set assigned to them.
- Click the Assign/unassign button.
- In the Select user window, search for the user by name or filter by Status or Patron group and select. For more information about searching for users, see Users > Search for user records.
- To add or assign a user to the shared permission, check the box next to the user’s name. To remove or unassign the user from the shared permission, uncheck the box next to the user’s name.
- Click Save.
Patron Groups
To view the shared Patron groups, follow these steps:
- Select the central tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected. If the central tenant is not selected, switch the active affiliation.
- Click on the user profile icon in the top right corner of the screen to switch the active affiliation.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- Select Users in the Settings pane.
- Select Patron groups in the User pane.
- The list of Patron groups displays in the Patron groups pane. The identifiers, Description, Expiration date offset (number of days), Last updated, and Member libraries display in separate columns.
To create a shared Patron group for the consortium, follow these steps:
- Select the central tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected. If the central tenant is not selected, switch the active affiliation.
- Click on the user profile icon in the top right corner of the screen to switch the active affiliation.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- Select Users in the Settings pane.
- Select Patron groups in the User pane.
- In the Patron groups pane, click the Select members button to select the member(s) for which you wish to create the shared setting. To select all members, check the box next to Name.
- Confirm the number of selected members. In the Settings for selected members can be modified at the same time window, the number of members selected displays at the top of the window.
- Click Save & close.
- Click the New button in the Patron groups pane.
- Fill out the Patron group, Description, Expiration date offset (number of days) fields.
- Check the Share box in the Member libraries column.
- Click Actions > Save.
To create a local (unshared) Patron group for the consortium, follow these steps:
- Select the central tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected. If the central tenant is not selected, switch the active affiliation.
- Click on the user profile icon in the top right corner of the screen to switch the active affiliation.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- Select Users in the Settings pane.
- Select Patron groups in the User pane.
- In the Patron groups pane, click the Select members button to select the member(s) for which you wish to create the local, or unshared, setting.
- Confirm the number of selected members. In the Settings for selected members can be modified at the same time window, the number of members selected displays at the top of the window.
- Click Save & close.
- Click the New button in the Patron groups pane.
- Fill out the Patron group, Description, Expiration date offset (number of days) fields.
- Leave the Share box in the Member libraries column unchecked.
- Click Actions > Save.
To edit a Patron group, follow these steps:
- Click on the pencil icon in the Actions column.
- Make edits to the Patron group, Description, or Expiration Offset Date (number of days) fields.
- The Share box is grayed out because the sharing option cannot be edited once the setting is created and initially saved. For more information about changing sharing options in a shared setting, see Shared Settings.
- Click Actions > Save.
To delete a Patron group, follow these steps:
- Click on the trash can icon in the Actions column.
- A Delete patron group name of patron group] pop-up window appears with the message, The patron group (Patron Group Name) will be deleted.
- Click the Delete button to delete the patron group or click the Cancel to cancel the deletion.
Departments
To view the shared Departments, follow these steps:
- Select the central tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected. If the central tenant is not selected, switch the active affiliation.
- Click on the user profile icon in the top right corner of the screen to switch the active affiliation.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- Select Users in the Settings pane.
- Select Departments in the User pane.
- The list of Departments displays in the Departments pane. The identifiers, Name, Code, Last updated, # of users, and Member libraries display in separate columns.
To create a shared Department for the consortium, follow these steps:
- Select the central tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected. If the central tenant is not selected, switch the active affiliation.
- Click on the user profile icon in the top right corner of the screen to switch the active affiliation.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- Select Users in the Settings pane.
- Select Departments in the User pane.
- In the Departments pane, click the Select members button to select the member(s) for which you wish to create the shared setting. To select all members, check the box next to Name.
- Confirm the number of selected members. In the Settings for selected members can be modified at the same time window, the number of members selected displays at the top of the window.
- Click Save & close.
- Click the New button in the Departments pane.
- Fill out the Name and Code fields.
- Check the Share box in the Member libraries column.
- Click Actions > Save.
To create a local (unshared) Department for the consortium, follow these steps:
- Select the central tenant as the active affiliation in the top right corner if it is not already selected. If the central tenant is not selected, switch the active affiliation.
- Click on the user profile icon in the top right corner of the screen to switch the active affiliation.
- Select switch active affiliation in the drop-down menu.
- Select the primary member from the Consortium members menu.
- Click Save & close.
- Select Users in the Settings pane.
- Select Departments in the User pane.
- In the Departments pane, click the Select members button to select the member(s) for which you wish to create the local, or unshared, setting.
- Confirm the number of selected members. In the Settings for selected members can be modified at the same time window, the number of members selected displays at the top of the window.
- Click Save & close.
- Click the New button in the Departments pane.
- Fill out the Name and Code fields.
- Leave the Share box in the Member libraries column unchecked.
- Click Actions > Save.
To edit a Departments, follow these steps:
- Click on the pencil icon in the Actions column.
- Make edits to the Name and Code fields.
- The Share box is grayed out because the sharing option cannot be edited once the setting is created and initially saved. For more information about changing sharing options in a shared setting, see Shared Settings.
- Click Actions > Save.
To delete a Department, follow these steps:
- Click on the trash can icon in the Actions column.
- A Delete Departments [name of Department] pop-up window appears with the message, *The Departments (Department Name) will be deleted.
- Click Delete to delete the Department or click Cancel to cancel the deletion.