Categories

A second level of classification for library members, used to group members within a Member Type

Categories provide a secondary grouping for members below the Member Type level. In a school library, a Member Type might represent a year group or grade, and the Category represents the specific class within that year — for example, Grade 7 members might be split into classes 7C, 7L, and 7S. Categories appear in reports and can be used to filter member lists, but they do not affect borrowing rules or Privileges.

🗂

Member Types and Categories — How They Relate

Papyrus Cloud uses a two-level classification system for members. Member Types are the primary grouping; Categories are the secondary grouping within that. The relationship between the two is deliberately flexible:

Feature	Member Type	Category
Purpose	Primary classification — drives reports, Privileges, and the promotion routine	Secondary sub-classification — used for finer grouping in reports and member lists
Affects borrowing rules	Yes — Quota, No Issue After, Max Fine, Bespeak Days all operate at the type level	No — Categories are informational only and do not affect any lending rules
Relationship	Each member has exactly one Member Type	Each member has one Category (or none). Categories are shared across types — the same Category code can appear in multiple Member Types
Uniqueness	Type codes are unique per type	Category codes are global — a many-to-many relationship exists between Categories and Member Types
Configured here	Parameters → Member Parameters → Member Types	Parameters → Member Parameters → Categories

The member hierarchy in Papyrus looks like this:

🏫 Library

└

👥 Member Type — e.g. Grade 7 (07)

└

👤 Category — e.g. 7C, 7L, 7S (class groups within Grade 7)

ℹ

Categories are not nested under Member Types in the system. They are a flat global list — any Category can be assigned to any member of any type. The grouping exists on each individual member record, not as a parent-child structure in the parameters. This means the same class code (e.g. 7C) could theoretically appear across multiple grades if needed.

📋

The Categories List

The Categories screen displays all defined categories in a simple table showing the category code and the number of members currently assigned to each. The list can be sorted by the Category column heading.

	Category	Members
Delete	(none)	247
Delete	00B	24
Delete	00M	23
Delete	00N	23
Delete	0C	25
Delete	0L	26
Delete	0S	24
Delete	1A	3
Delete	1G	2
Delete	2H	3
Delete	7C	28
Delete	7L	29
Delete	7S	27
Delete	G8 Green	0

The first row (with a blank category code and 247 members) represents all members who have not been assigned to any category. This is normal — Categories are optional and many libraries do not use them at all.

The Members column shows how many member records are currently assigned to each category. This count is useful when managing your categories — for example, confirming which classes have been fully populated after an import, or identifying empty categories that can be safely deleted.

➕

Adding a Category

To add a new Category, type the category code in the single field at the top of the screen and click Add.

Category…

Add

Field	Description
Category	The category code — up to 20 characters. The code is what appears on member records, in reports, and in drop-down lists when assigning a category to a member. It should be meaningful to library staff. There is no separate description field — the code serves as both identifier and label.

💡

Design codes to be self-explanatory. Because there is no separate description field, the category code itself must be meaningful at a glance. Codes like 7C, 7L, 7S are clear to anyone who knows the school's class naming convention, while longer codes like G8 Green spell it out more explicitly. Choose whichever style suits your organisation.

🗑

Deleting a Category

Click the Delete link on any row to remove that category. A category can only be deleted if no members are currently assigned to it — the Members count must be 0 before deletion is permitted.

⚠

If you need to delete a category that still has members assigned to it, you must first reassign all those members to a different category (or remove their category assignment entirely) through Maintain Members. Only once the Members count reaches zero will the Delete link allow the category to be removed.

ℹ

Categories that are no longer in use but still have a member count above zero — such as old class groups from previous years — can be left in the list without causing any problems. They will simply appear in drop-down lists when assigning categories to members. Remove them when you are ready to tidy up your category list at the end of a school year.

🏫

Use Case Examples

Example 1 — School classes within a year group

The sample library uses Grade 7 as a Member Type (07). Within Grade 7, the school has three classes: 7C (Calder), 7L (Livingstone), and 7S (Stanley). These are defined as categories 7C, 7L, 7S, with 28, 29, and 27 members respectively. A report can then be run for Member Type 07 and sub-totalled by Category to show borrowing by class.

Example 2 — Reception/Foundation phase class codes

The categories 00B, 00M, 00N with 24, 23, and 23 members suggest a pre-Grade 1 or reception year with three classes (B, M, N). Similarly 0C, 0L, 0S suggest another year group with three classes, showing how the same Category structure scales across the school.

Example 3 — Named house groups

The category G8 Green shows that categories can use longer, descriptive names where the code alone does not convey enough meaning. This might be a Grade 8 house or tutorial group called "Green". With 0 members currently assigned, it is either a new category being prepared for an upcoming intake, or an old one that has been emptied and is ready for deletion.

Example 4 — College or university courses

In a college or higher education library, Member Type could be the year of study (Year 1, Year 2, Year 3) and Category could be the course or programme (e.g. BSc Comp, BA Eng, BCom). Because Categories are not unique to a Member Type, the same course names would appear across all year groups.

❓

The Unassigned Row

The first row in the Categories list always shows a blank Category code with a member count — in the sample library, this is 247 members. This row represents all members who do not currently have a category assigned to them.

This is entirely normal and expected. Many libraries use Member Types extensively but never assign Categories — in that case, all members would appear in this unassigned row. Categories are always optional.

The unassigned row cannot be deleted. It simply reflects the current state of member data. To reduce the count, assign categories to members through Members → Maintain Members or via a bulk member import.

💡

Checking after an import. After importing a batch of members, the unassigned count is a useful indicator — if it has increased by the number of imported members, the import did not assign categories. Check whether your import file included a Category column and that the categories in the file match existing codes in the system.

📐

Planning Your Categories

Because Categories are simple codes with no additional settings, the main planning consideration is deciding on a consistent naming convention before members are imported. Here are practical guidelines:

Guideline	Detail
Decide before importing	If member import files include a class or group column, define the matching categories in Papyrus first so the import correctly assigns them. Otherwise members will arrive unassigned.
Match your school's naming	Use exactly the same codes your school administration system uses for class groups, so that imports from D6+, Adam, Engage, or Wonde can be matched automatically.
Keep codes concise	Short codes are easier to read in drop-down lists and reports. Two to four characters is ideal — 7C is clearer in a column than Grade 7 Calder Class.
Year-end housekeeping	At the end of each year, after the promotion routine has run, old class categories will have 0 members. This is a good time to review the list and delete obsolete categories to keep the drop-down lists tidy.
Categories are optional	If your library does not need class-level reporting, simply do not assign categories to members. Member Types alone provide sufficient grouping for most purposes.