Restricting Titles by Age or Year Level

Library administrators can restrict access to selected titles using a patron’s year level or age. You can also hide titles that should not be available to readers.

These controls depend on accurate patron information. Review your patron data before applying restrictions.

Video tutorial

Watch this staff tutorial for an overview of restricting titles in ePlatform.

Before you begin

Before restricting any titles, confirm:

that you have administrator access to your school’s ePlatform portal;
which titles require restricted access;
whether your school will use year-level or age-based restrictions;
that patron year levels or dates of birth are current; and
that the proposed restrictions match your school’s content-access policy.

Have test patron accounts from different ages or year levels available so you can check the reader experience after applying the restrictions.

Choose a restriction method

Method	Patron data used	Admin path
Year-level restriction	The patron’s year-level information	Restrict Titles by Age or Year Level → Restrict by Year Level
Age restriction	The patron’s date-of-birth information	Restrict Titles by Age or Year Level → Restrict by Age

Use the method supported by the patron information your school provides to ePlatform.

Restrict titles by year level

Use a year-level restriction to set the minimum year level required to access a selected title.

Sign in to your school’s ePlatform portal as an administrator.
Open the Admin area.
Find Restrict Titles by Age or Year Level.
Select Restrict by Year Level.
Find the title you want to restrict.
Set the required minimum year level for that title.
Review the selected title and restriction before applying the change.

The complete navigation path is: Admin area → Restrict Titles by Age or Year Level → Restrict by Year Level.

Year-level restrictions rely on the year level recorded against each patron account.

Restrict titles by age

Use an age restriction to set the minimum age required to access a selected title.

Sign in to your school’s ePlatform portal as an administrator.
Open the Admin area.
Find Restrict Titles by Age or Year Level.
Select Restrict by Age.
Find the title you want to restrict.
Set the required minimum age for that title.
Review the selected title and restriction before applying the change.

The complete navigation path is: Admin area → Restrict Titles by Age or Year Level → Restrict by Age.

Age restrictions rely on the date of birth recorded against each patron account.

Hide a title

If a title should not be available to readers, use the available title restriction controls to hide it.

Open either Restrict by Year Level or Restrict by Age.
Find the title you want to hide.
Use the available control to hide the title.
Check that you selected the correct title before applying the change.

Test the reader experience after hiding a title to confirm that the result matches your school’s requirements.

Restrictions depend on accurate date-of-birth or year-level information. How that information reaches ePlatform depends on the way patrons sign in.

Login method	What to provide or check
Self-registration	Make date of birth compulsory on the Registration Home page. Avoid relying on year level unless your school will keep it current.
Patron import	Include the date-of-birth or year-level columns in the patron spreadsheet.
SSO	Ask your IT team to send date of birth or year level in the information supplied to ePlatform.
SIP2	Confirm that your Library Management System supplies date of birth or year level. Support can vary by system and version.
LDAP or Active Directory	Work with ePlatform Support to map organisational units to year levels. Provide three or four test accounts with their expected levels and three or four restricted test titles. Allow approximately five to ten working days for setup and testing.
Libcode	Contact ePlatform Support to confirm the patron information available through your connection.

Review patron data

If the relevant year level or date of birth is missing or incorrect, the restriction may not produce the intended result for that patron.

To review patron records, go to:

Admin area → Patrons

Manually managed patron accounts

To add or correct year-level or date-of-birth information for multiple manually managed accounts, go to:

Admin area → Patrons → Import / Update Patrons

Review the patron data before importing it, then check a selection of updated accounts in the patron list.

Accounts managed through SSO or another integration

Confirm that the relevant year-level or date-of-birth information is correct in the connected source system.

Ask your IT team to review the source data and its mapping to ePlatform if patron information is missing or incorrect.

Use peer-average restriction suggestions

The restriction page may show suggested age or year-level values based on averages supplied by participating ePlatform libraries. These values are not prepared or approved by Wheelers or ePlatform, so review every suggestion against your school’s requirements.

Single-arrow control: applies the displayed average to one title.
Double-arrow control: applies displayed averages to all applicable titles.

Restriction values save automatically. Values entered by participating libraries may also contribute to future peer averages.

Test the restrictions

After applying a restriction, test it with patron accounts that contain different year levels or dates of birth.

Sign out of the Admin area.
Sign in with a test patron who should be affected by the restriction.
Search for the restricted title and check the resulting access.
Sign out.
Sign in with a test patron who meets the required age or year level.
Search for the same title and confirm that the intended access is available.

Check more than one test account when applying restrictions across multiple ages or year levels.

If a restriction does not work as expected

Check the following:

Restriction method: Confirm that you used the intended age or year-level restriction.
Selected title: Confirm that the restriction was applied to the correct title.
Patron data: Review the affected patron’s year level or date of birth under Admin area → Patrons.
Latest update: Confirm that the latest patron import or account synchronisation has been completed.
Test account: Make sure you are signed in using the patron account you intended to test.

Need help?

If a title restriction does not produce the expected result after checking the title and patron data, contact support@eplatform.co.

Please include:

your school or library name;
the affected title and author;
whether you used an age or year-level restriction;
the restriction you selected;
the affected patron’s age or year level;
what happened when you tested the restriction; and
a screenshot of the relevant restriction page.

Do not include patron passwords, student QR codes, or other sensitive sign-in information.

I Can Sign In but Can’t See the Expected Titles

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