Promote integration with ILS

This topic describes how Vega Promote integrates with your ILS (Sierra or Polaris), including the patron data that is synced, sync exclusions, and important system behaviors.

The integration between Vega Promote and your ILS works as follows:

  • Your ILS remains the system of record for patron data and activity.

  • Vega Promote manages messaging, including campaigns and automated communication.

  • Patron data is synced from the ILS to Promote.

Integration setup is completed by Clarivate during your onboarding.

Patron data synced from the ILS

The following patron data is synced from your ILS into Promote:

  • Patron Information

  • First Name

  • Last Name

  • Email Address

  • Barcode

  • Zip code/Postal code

  • Membership Expiration Date

  • Cardholder Creation Date

  • Patron Type (Sierra)/Patron Code (Polaris)

  • Home Library

  • Preferred Contact Language

  • Statistical Class (Polaris)

  • Patron Codes (Sierra)

  • Date of Latest Activity from ILS

  • Number of Current Checkouts

Vega Promote uses this data for personalization, audience segmentation, and automated messaging.

Patrons excluded from the sync

Certain patron records aren't synced to Vega Promote.

Minor patrons

If age validation is enabled:

  • Patrons younger than 13 are excluded based on their date of birth.

  • Patrons assigned designated minor P-types or P-codes are excluded according to your library's configuration.

If age validation is disabled:

  • No patrons are excluded based on age.

Age validation settings are configured during onboarding. Contact Clarivate if changes are required.

Patrons with invalid or missing emails

Patrons are excluded from Promote if:

  • They do not have an email address.

  • Their email address is not valid (for example, missing “@”).

Patrons who share an email address

When multiple patrons share the same email address:

  • Only one patron record is synced to Vega Promote.

  • The selected patron must pass age validation requirements, if enabled during onboarding.

  • If multiple eligible patrons exist, the patron with the earliest registration date is selected.

Other patrons with the same email address aren't synced. This behavior may be changed in the future.

Synchronization behavior

Updates from ILS

  • Patron updates from the ILS are synced to Promote automatically 3 times per day.

  • Updates made to patron records in Promote aren't synced to the record in the ILS. The ILS remains the source of truth for patron records.

Deletion behavior

  • If a patron is deleted in the ILS, the record is automatically removed from Promote during the next sync.

  • If the record is deleted in Vega Promote, but still exists in the ILS, it will reappear during the next sync.

Importing contacts from a CSV file

When importing contacts into Vega Promote from a CSV file:

  • If a contact with the email address already exists, Vega Promote updates the existing record.

  • If the email address doesn't exist, Vega Promote creates a new contact.

  • Patron-specific fields are automatically populated from the ILS when corresponding data is available.