[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Seeking opinions on client "Transfer All Title Holds" option

[Boyer, Jason A]

Dangerous may be a little strong, but I’m the one who used “havoc” when referring to it, so what do I know. :) I’m for removing it.

Jason

--
Jason Boyer
Indiana State Library
140 North Senate Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46204
http://library.in.gov/
317-234-2128

On Aug 5, 2014, at 8:13 AM, Kathy Lussier <klussier at masslnc.org<mailto:klussier at masslnc.org>> wrote:

Hi Rogan,

Frankly, I worry this is starting to get into the territory of "let's add another permission (or YAOUS) for every eventuality no matter how obscure."

Yes, I think I agree with you here, which is why I'm suggesting that rather than adding a permission, we remove that menu entry altogether. Since holds are already transferred as part of a record merge and there is another method available to transfer all holds that requires the user to actively select those holds, it seems to be an unnecessary and potentially dangerous option to me. Dangerous may be too strong of a word, but it is something that is problematic when it is accidentally selected.

Kathy

Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
klussier at masslnc.org<mailto:klussier at masslnc.org>
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier


On 8/4/2014 8:44 PM, Rogan Hamby wrote:
Frankly, I worry this is starting to get into the territory of "let's add another permission (or YAOUS) for every eventuality no matter how obscure."

Some features I think in the long run complicate our lives (documentation, testing, development) more than they improve functionality.


On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 5:09 PM, Kathy Lussier <klussier at masslnc.org<mailto:klussier at masslnc.org>> wrote:
Hi all,

I wanted to seek some feedback on Launchpad bug 1350377 https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1350377.

The bug seeks an additional permission to be used with the "Transfer All Title Holds" option in the client. However, I was wondering if there would be any support from removing that option from the client altogether.

Here's the issue:

When you are in a bib record in the staff client, you have the option to transfer *all* title holds to another bib record. You first need to mark the other bib record as a holds transfer destination.

However, you also have the option to transfer one or any number of selected holds to the marked bib record from the holds view of the bib record. You could transfer just one hold here or you could select them all if you really needed to transfer all holds. The benefit of using this option is that the user must actively select the holds that will be transferred.

I personally think providing a blanket "Transfer All Title Holds" option in the client is dangerous, even if there were a separate permission for it, and unnecessary since there are other methods available in the staff client to accomplish the same task. Making it even more dangerous is the fact that the "Actions for this Record" menu that contains this option to transfer all holds is still available in the holds view of the bib record, which is where you go to transfer selected holds (see the screencast at http://www.screencast.com/t/ifHhJHNqq). It is very easy to mistakenly select this option when you are trying just to transfer just one hold. In fact, I accidentally selected it when I was just testing out the transfer holds scenario a few minutes ago.

During a brief discussion in IRC on this issue, it was mentioned that possible use cases for the "transfer all title holds" option are:

1. When staff are manually merging bib records. The client bib merge option automatically merges holds, but there may be reasons staff merge the records without using that option.
2. In cases where there are orphaned holds on a record that no longer has copies to fill the hold.

Since I think both of these use cases could be accommodated by using the option where you transfer selected holds, I wanted to see if others would support removing the "Transfer All Title Holds" option. Is there anyone who uses this option with some frequency who thinks it should continue to be available?

Thanks!
Kathy

--
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128<tel:%28508%29%20343-0128>
klussier at masslnc.org<mailto:klussier at masslnc.org>
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier




--

Rogan Hamby, MLS, CCNP, MIA
Managers Headquarters Library and Reference Services,
York County Library System

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
― C.S. Lewis<http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1069006.C_S_Lewis>


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