Password Reset & Set (Sierra)

Owned by Tammy Poquette, created
Last updated: Mar 30, 2023
5 min read

When your patron needs help resetting their password, you can help them using Sierra.

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Resetting a Sierra Password

You can use Sierra to reset a patron’s password. In order to edit a patron record, you must be in the Check Out (Circulation Desk) Function for Sierra.

You have several options to bring up the patron’s record.  

  1. You can scan the patron's barcode.  You can also type in the patron’s barcode number as well.

  2. You can type the letter “n” and the patron’s last name and first name.  Suggestion: When asking for the patron’s name, you can verify the patron by asking for a phone number or address like you would do when you have multiple patrons with the same name.

  3. You can click on the Search box to bring up the Find a patron screen.  You can use the dropdown to either enter the b PATRON BARCODE, n NAME., u ID (unique ID), f FAMILY ID, w Phone, Email, Birth Date,  or .RECORD #.  You would type the patron’s last name and first name. Note: Searching for the Birth Date only works if you have that information in the variable-length field for birth date.

 

Once you have found the patron’s record, you would click on the Edit Icon.

The PIN will be hidden. In order to change the PIN/Password, you would start typing the password into the PIN field. When you start typing, the Set PIN field will pop up. Staff can use this field to help patrons change their passwords. Staff can turn the screen to the patron to allow them to reset their own password, Sierra.

Cultural use and acceptance of the word PIN implies a four-digit identification number. Although this is certainly better than nothing, Marmot decided to alter the language to reflect an even more secure and customized authentication token. Cultural use of the word PASSWORD implies an alpha-numeric token. Passwords also have generally accepted complexity standards - such as uppercase characters, lowercase characters, numbers, and symbols - that you can direct patrons toward in order to encourage more secure authentication tokens.

The PIN cannot contain common trivial patterns. For example:

  • Consecutively repeating a character three or more times (for example, aaaa, aaaax7gp, x7gp3333.

  • Consecutively repeating a set of up to four characters two or more times (for example, abab, abcabc, abcdabcd, ababx7gp, x7gp3434, and words that have repeating letters like banana).

Enter the temporary password in the Enter PIN field. Add the temporary password to the Confirm field. Click the OK button. Once you enter the password in the Set PIN box, see the Password Reset Field information to explain the importance of that field.

Click on the Save/Close Icon once the password has been updated for the patron.

The patron will need to login into their Pika account in order to reset the temporary password. The Online Catalog Password Reset is patron-facing documentation to help your patrons understand how the password reset works in the catalog.

Password Reset Field

The Password Reset field will contain the date that the patron password was last reset. When a patron resets their password in the catalog, the Password Reset field will include a message that the patron set it in Pika with a date and time. This is Sierra talking to the catalog. When there is a message in the Password Reset field the patron will not be prompted to reset the password in the catalog.

If the patron reset their password using the library’s keyboard, you can type in the message that lets staff know that the patron set their own password. When there is a message in the Password Reset field the patron will not be prompted to reset the password in the catalog.

If the patron has forgotten their password and needs help from library staff to reset the password in the catalog, you will need to remove the Password Reset field or set that field to zero (0) in order for the patron to reset their password in the catalog. You can also delete that field in order to force a password reset.

 

 

The ideal functionality of the Password Reset field is as follows;

  • Staff set the field to a value of zero (0). Staff can also delete the Password Reset field to force a password reset in Pika.

  • Pika sees that value and knows that it means the patron should be prompted to reset their password when they log into Pika.

  • After patron resets their password Pika changes the value in that field to something like a date (i.e. 01/06/2023) so that staff know the last date the password was reset.

This field was never meant to house the password itself. Staff can have patrons set their password in the PIN field. 

 

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Setting a Sierra Password

When creating a new patron record, you will want to set a temporary password for your patrons to reset when they log into Pika.

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