This documentation describes how to enable and utilize Masquerade Mode in Pika.
Table of Contents
Masquerade Mode basics
Masquerade Mode allows library staff to access patron accounts in Pika without a patron’s personal PIN or password. This is a more secure way to troubleshoot issues with patrons' accounts in Pika, since it doesn’t require that a patron provide their secure PIN or password to library staff.
Enabling Masquerade mode
Masquerade Mode is enabled in the ILS/Account Integration section of the Library System settings. There are also required settings in the PTypes table that correspond with the staff Ptypes that you allow to masquerade as other users. Follow the instructions in this document to enable Masquerade Mode for your library system.
Begin Masquerade Mode
To masquerade as a patron, you must be logged in to your library’s Pika instance as a staff patron that has a Masquerade Level enabled. When logged in as a staff patron with an applied Masquerade Level, you will see the Masquerade option in the My Account menu.
Click on Masquerade to bring up the Masquerade As popup window. Enter the library barcode number of the patron you want to Masquerade As and click Start. While the action is processing, you’ll see an alert in the Masquerade As popup window.
A user has to login to their account in Pika at least once for staff to Masquerade as that user. If a user has never logged in to their library account in Pika, Masquerade Mode will fail for that user in question.
When you are in Masquerade Mode and masquerading as a patron you will see purple highlights throughout Pika, alerting you to the fact that you are masquerading as a patron. There is also messaging that displays the name of the patron you are masquerading as.
Available Patron Actions while Masquerading
When in Masquerade Mode you can preform most actions that a patron could perform themselves, including placing and cancelling holds, viewing current checkouts and holds, viewing account information (including linked accounts, when applicable), user list management, and using enabled search tools e.g. saving or emailing search results.
Reading History in Masquerade Mode
The ability to view a patron’s Reading History in Masquerade Mode must be enabled in the ILS/Account Settings at the Library System level. If this option is not enabled, staff users will not be able to see patrons' Reading Histories when in Masquerade Mode.
If the ability to view Reading History in Masquerade Mode is not enabled and you click on the Reading History option in the My Account section while masquerading as a user, you will see an alert in the My Reading History page.
Ending Masquerade Mode
There are several options to end Masquerade Mode when you’re done masquerading as a patron.
In the purple banner at the top of the screen you can click the End Masquerade button.
In the purple box on the left in the sidebar menu you can click on the End Masquerading text.
When you click either the End Masquerade button in the banner or the End Masquerading text in the sidebar, you will revert back to being logged in as a staff user under the same staff account you initially logged in with.
Masquerade Mode Timeout
If you are masquerading as a patron and leave the screen idle for a certain period of time (set in the Masquerade Mode settings at the library system level) the Masquerade Mode session will timeout and automatically end the session, reverting back to the initial staff account you logged in with.
Before timing out and ending the session, several action options will appear on screen in a popup. You can choose to Continue the masquerade session, End Masquerade to stay logged in as a staff user but end the masquerade session, or Logout to end the masquerade session and logout the staff user.
If no action is taken in the popup window, then the current Masquerade Mode session will end, but you will stay logged in as the staff user account.