Group Manager enables you to define the permissions of the security groups assigned to your users. Every borrower and user needs to belong to a security group. By default, anyone that is added is placed into a built-in group with limited permissions called 'Guest'. The 'Guest' user group has permissions such as the ability to make reservations, write reviews and renew books but does not have access to any features within Management.
Using Group Manager, it is possible to set up additional security groups to be assigned to specific borrowers, giving them unique permissions. In a school library, this is useful when creating a pupil helper account, used for the purpose of issuing and returning, but preventing access to Management.
You can also check which group a borrower has already been assigned to.
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Creating/Editing a Security Group
By default there are three security groups available, these are: Administrator, Librarian and Guest. You can create new security groups using Group Manager and add to this list.
Log into your library system as a user with administrator level permissions and open Management then select 'Security' from the menu bar at the top of the page and 'Group Manager' from the menu.
To begin creating a new group, click 'New', or to alter an existing group, select the group to be altered and click 'Edit'.
Ensure the 'Description' contains an accurate name for the group.
The next step is to choose what permissions you would like to assign to the new group from the 'Options' section. The settings are split up into three groups: 'Menus', 'Toolbars' and 'Commands'.
Menus
The settings under the menus tab generally show the areas that you can access by clicking the menu bar at the top of Management. For instance, under 'Menu' and 'Database', you will find 'Borrowers'. This setting corresponds to the table of the same name. Should you wish to prevent access to the Borrowers table, select it and then choose the appropriate level of access on the right hand side.
Repeat for each option you wish to change.
Toolbars
The options under the Toolbars menu allow you to select buttons and actions that are available throughout Management. For instance, to allow a user access to Resource but not allow them to add resources, you could remove the ability to see the 'New' button. Select 'Toolbars' then 'Records' then 'New' and then select 'Hidden' from the options on the right.
Repeat for each option you wish to change.
Commands
Under the commands section you can choose to enable/disable actions that the group will be able to perform. The majority of these are aimed towards Circulate, though you can restrict other items such as the ability to access Management and the ability to export. To prevent anyone in the group from accessing Circulate, click the setting 'Can Access Circulate' and select 'No' on the right-hand side.
Saving
We recommend that you check each setting to ensure that the group is set up how you want it. Once you have defined all settings, click 'OK' to save the group and then click 'OK' again to return to Management. You can now assign individual users or borrowers to this group.