--- /dev/null
+Consolidate Patron Notes, Alerts, and Messages
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+Patron notes, messages, alert messages, and standing penalties have been folded into one Notes interface. Notes designated as public will show in the My Account -> Message Center in the OPAC for patrons.
+
+The underlying data structure has also changed with all notes living in the actor.usr_message table, so report writers will need to change the following paths in existing reports:
+
+ actor.usr_note -> all columns
+ actor.usr -> alert_message
+ actor.usr_standing_penalty -> note
+
+And for actor.usr_message, there is now both a pub column and a deleted column.
+
+Depending on privacy policies, system adminstrators may wish to set up a recurring process to truly delete older entries in actor.usr_message that have been flagged as deleted.