Michael --

INFOhio has all manner of (strange!) patron update routines defined,
initially programmed to run on VMS for MultiLIS and now tied into Unicorn on
Solaris.  We don't do "temporary" users, as you describe them, but since the
majority of our systems' patrons are K-12 students, they are almost all set
with an expiration equal to the projected date of graduation from grade 12.


In short, you should be able to use some of the same methodology... adding
the user with an expiration date of +30 or 60 days, and assign them whatever
profile you have defined that matches.  Then if they "go real", modifying
the expiration and profile.  I don't think any more is required.

The "hostedness" of your ILS will largely define how this can be
accomplished.  As long as you can:

   1. FTP files from/into Unicorn/Xfer.
   2. Schedule (or trigger) "aduusertext" reports.
   3. Host the temp. reg. CGI offbox (on a machine you actually can
   modify).

It should be possible, though not necessarily pretty.  It might get cleaner
if you have crontab access and can install custom reports.  Or if you want
to (help) build a perl Net::Telnet::Sirsi mini-client module.  Hrm... That
might be cool.

In any case, there is nothing to prevent a user from creating a "full"
account unrelated to their "temp" account.  One related question is, how
does your system handle expiration of patrons currently?  I assume they just
get a regular card that is good for X number of years?

--Joe Atzberger
INFOhio Technical Specialist
Metropolitan Educational Council