Creating the Group Hierarchy

The group hierarchy indicates which patron, item, and special reserve groups each individual patron group can modify in Group Editor. The hierarchy is determined by the entry in the Created by Patron Group box, which is located on the General page for each patron, item, and special reserve group. This entry determines which groups display on the Group Access pages. Permissions to modify patron and item access are then established on the Group Access pages.

If you do not want to create the group hierarchy, you must disable this feature in the Global.ini.REG file (the default path is C:\M3 Server\Registry\Common) by changing the Group Hierarchy entry to Override=off. If disabled, the Group Access rules in Group Editor will not be enforced.

Mandarin Oasis includes four default patron groups: Administrators, Librarians, Library Assistants, and Patrons. The hierarchy has been created for these groups. Mandarin recommends that these groups be used; they cannot be deleted. You can modify these groups or create additional groups, if desired. These four groups have the following permissions:

Administrator (first level) – has permission to modify access of all groups
Librarians (second level) – has permission to modify access of Library Assistants and Patrons
Library Assistants (third level) – has permission to modify access of Patrons
Patrons (fourth level) – has no permission to modify access of other groups

If your library requires additional patron groups, use the following procedure to add groups to the hierarchy and establish permissions. In this example, a user in the “Librarians” group has created a “Faculty” group, which will have the same permissions as the group “Library Assistants.”

On the main Group Editor page, locate the Faculty group and click the Edit link to the right. This opens the General page for the Faculty group. In the Created by Patron Group box, select Librarians. (No patron groups that were also created by the Librarians group will have access to the Faculty group unless indicated on the Group Access page.)
On the menu, click Group Access. The groups without access to the Faculty group display in the Groups Without Access box. To grant one or more of these groups access to the Faculty group, select the group in the Groups Without Access box, then click the << button. This moves the patron group to the Groups With Shared Access To Current box.
When finished, click OK.