[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Hold queues and due dates

[Hardy, Elaine]

As Chris alludes, from experience with a system that did display this kind of information, PINES libraries felt, and still feel, that displaying due dates and estimating the date when an item placed on hold would be available to the patron would be too misleading and cause more problems than it would solve. As Vicki, says, the many factors that go into getting the item back and then to the new user make it impossible to predict with any accuracy when the book would be available to any given patron on the hold list. In PINES, a large consortium in a large state, it can take as long as a week in transit time between systems. Also, at least in earlier versions of Evergreen, holds are not necessarily filled in the order in which they are placed in order to minimize overall transit time. 


Elaine Hardy 








J. Elaine Hardy 
PINES Bibliographic Projects & Metadata Manager 
Georgia Public Library Service 
1800 Century Place, Ste 150 
Atlanta, Ga. 30345-4304 

404.235-7128 
404.235-7201, fax 
ehardy at georgialibraries.org 
www.georgialibraries.org 
www.georgialibraries.org/pines 




From: "Chris Sharp" <csharp at georgialibraries.org> 
To: "Evergreen Discussion Group" <open-ils-general at list.georgialibraries.org> 
Sent: Thursday, February 3, 2011 3:15:01 PM 
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Hold queues and due dates 

Hello, 

> I have three holds on books at my local library but thanks to the 
> recent installation of Evergreen I have no idea when any of them will 
> be available. With the cataloging system that Evergreen replaced, I 
> knew whether there was one or any number of other patrons ahead of me. 
> Similarly, when I call up the details of a particular book I learn 
> whether it is available or checked out but have no indication of when 
> it is due back in the library. The old software told me that, too. 

As Jason mentions, there is an "estimated hold wait" feature in recent 
versions of Evergreen that's based on an algorithm of the number of available 
copies, the item check-out period, and the number of holds. Whether or not 
your library is able to enable this feature is up to whatever governance 
structure they have in place. In large consortia (like PINES, for which 
Evergreen was originally designed), these kinds of settings can be controversial 
(for reasons like the ones Vicki mentions). 

> Instead, Evergreen tells me whether a book is damaged, being 
> reshelved, in process, in transit, or in various other situations that 
> are of no concern to the library patron. I have yet to find anything 
> other than a zero under any of these headings. 

While this kind of information may not be particularly helpful for patrons at 
their home computers, it is very important to patrons inside libraries. Evergreen 
uses the same interface for patrons both inside and outside libraries and library 
staff as well, so it is designed to accommodate all three groups' needs. 

-- 
Chris Sharp 
PINES Program Manager 
Georgia Public Library Service 
1800 Century Place, Suite 150 
Atlanta, Georgia 30345 
(404) 235-7147 
csharp at georgialibraries.org 
http://pines.georgialibraries.org/ 
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