[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] holds not picking up

[Ben Shum]

Hi Anne,

Which version of Evergreen are you using?  In more recent versions 
(since 2.1.0 and upwards, I think), it's possible to use a special 
"check-in modifier" (lower right corner of the check-in screen) to 
enable the re-targeting of holds upon check-in of items.  This special 
modifier is used when handling brand new material that gets added to an 
Evergreen system.

Presently, holds are only targeted once every 24 hours based on the time 
that the hold was initially placed first.  There's a field on the hold 
table called "prev_check_time" (previous check time) that tells the 
targeter to skip said hold until it passes that point.  So depending on 
when the patron or staff created the hold, and then based on the 
regularity of your hold targeter script, the availability of materials 
that can fulfill a hold will vary greatly.  In our consortium, we run 
our hold targeter every 15 minutes, but because of the 24 hour wait time 
built into each hold, it still doesn't match brand new items to some 
existing holds till the following day.  For example, a hold could be 
created at 1 pm on Monday, a new item created to fill that hold on 2 pm 
on Monday, but that hold won't target that new item till 1 pm on Tuesday 
after the previous check time elapses and the hold targeter actually 
does another check.

Another possibility is that whichever copy status that is being used 
when processing books ordered and scanned in your first mentioned 
approach is one that does not allow holds to be placed/processed on the 
material.  You may want to double check that the copy status options are 
all in order on your system as well and that holds are allowed on the 
statuses you expect.

Hope this helps somewhat, please feel free to ask more questions. Holds 
can be a little perplexing...

-- Ben

On 08/08/2012 07:05 AM, Anne Murray wrote:
> Can anyone help with this as we can't find the problem. If we order 
> more copies of a very popular book, when they are scanned through 
> check in, the holds aren't triggered. The holds targetter is running 
> ok. Also, if we buy a book from Amazon (say) and catalogue it 
> ourselves, the hold goes on ok, but again when it reaches the library 
> the hold isn't picked up and the status goes to 'reshelving'.
> Anne Murray
> Service Support Officer
> East Dunbartonshire Libraries
> Kirkintilloch
> Scotland

-- 
Benjamin Shum
Open Source Software Coordinator
Bibliomation, Inc.
32 Crest Road
Middlebury, CT 06762
203-577-4070, ext. 113