In the unfortunate event that we learn that a patron passes away, we need a quick, clear, and finite procedure to immediately and permanently cease/stop any and all IZ and NZ notifications to the patron's email account, especially those that are tied to a SIS load (Example: Banner). College administration directs the library to ensure no emails are sent to the deceased's email account. We need to be able to definitively state to college administrators "Absolutely zero communications, automated or manually generated, will be sent regarding the deceased patron's library account from the IZ or NZ."

Existing work-arounds include toggling the account to internal, removing the email from the account, or entering a fake email; or use of the "Patron Opt-in/Opt-out function" that does not cover all possible letters. However, work-arounds are insufficient and not best practice. As it stands, any patron account toggled external (account information controlled by SIS), will continue to be subject to automated and manual notifications outside of the letter list. Our college uses "Banner" for our SIS. Whereas Banner will eventually remove the patron, there is a governing policy which states the college must retain student records for three years, which means the purge date could be up to three years away from the expiration date of the patron account. Our instance of Alma is also part of a shared library system (consortia NZ) and part of an AFN (automated fulfillment network) and thus linked records may exist in other systems, which would not apply in most Alma instances. As part of the AFN, patron notifications originate from the lending institution and not the patron's home institution. We do have a procedure to remove items involving the AFN from the patron record, however that takes time. The need to block notifications is immediate under these circumstances.

We recently received notification about the tragic death of a patron and the college made it clear that the family should not (ever, now or in the future) receive any notifications about any college business such as overdue notices. I am 100% in agreement with the college's policy. We would like to honor that policy, but if we toggle the student's account as internal, the account will likely not be purged according to the college's policies. It would be best if we maintained the record as externally controlled by SIS and simply prevent generation of any notifications, period. The need is to have a very simple way to instantly stop any and all notifications from being generated from the deceased's account in their home institution as well as any linked accounts via a simple, clearly labeled toggle switch available in the patron's account by an operator with the appropriate permissions/role.