[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Dealing with Holds

[Diane Disbro]

Good afternoon -

 

We are a multi-branch system and had the same situation you describe when we
migrated to Missouri Evergreen. The problem was solved by having our
settings edited so that the ILS thinks all of our branches are under one
roof.  All of our patrons are in one queue now. This was VERY important to
us. Otherwise, once an item goes to, for example, the Pacific branch, it
will fill all of the holds there before moving to a different branch,
without regard to the fact that some patrons in another branch placed their
hold before the patrons in Pacific.

 

The queue order is still not always what the ILS shows since other libraries
in the consortium have their own settings for filling holds.

 

One minor problem caused by our new setting is that the ILS does think all
ten branches are in one building so a hold placed for a Union patron may
target a New Haven item even though there is a copy of the item on the Union
shelves. 

 

Does that make sense?

 

Diane Disbro

Circulation Coordinator/Branch Manager

Union Branch

Scenic Regional Library

308 Hawthorne Drive

Union, MO     63084

636-583-3224

 <mailto:ddisbro at scenicregional.org> ddisbro at scenicregional.org

www.scenicregional.org

 

 

From: Open-ils-general
[mailto:open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of
Dana Schwarz
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2017 1:09 PM
To: Evergreen Discussion Group
Subject: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Dealing with Holds

 

Hi everyone,

 

I would very much appreciate some feedback from libraries in consortiums
about how they handle holds compared to my library's hold situation. 

(my apologies for the long email - it's a little difficult to explain.)

 

Before my library joined in a consortium, we filled holds by the date the
patron requested an item. We are two branches at Lincoln Public Library, so
when we scan an item with holds waiting, whoever placed the hold at the
earliest date and time in the whole system will get it and so on. This means
items will be shipped back and forth a lot to both of our branches but we
don't mind because we have delivery 3x a week. Having this hold system meant
that the staff on the client could tell where in the queue a patron was e.g.
"you are 5th in line for Wonder Woman". Patrons could also login from home
and see an estimated wait time for their hold to arrive. 

 

This past June my library and four other systems joined together to create
"LiNC" (Libraries in Niagara Cooperative) which has been successful so far
except for how we now fill our holds. Instead of Evergreen checking who was
first in all of Lincoln to place a hold, It is now looking who is first by
branch. For example, if an item is catalogued for our Rittenhouse branch the
first person that placed the hold whose home library is Rittenhouse will get
it first even though the first person in Lincoln to place a hold has their
home library at the Fleming branch. We cannot see a queue and the estimated
wait time is no longer valid. This has caused a lot of frustrations both
from staff and the public. The other libraries in our consortium are okay
with the new holds system but in Lincoln, our holds and circs are the
highest and the demand for holds information is really important.  

In order to go back to the way things were, we would need to pay Equinox a
considerable amount to make the changes. 

 

To the libraries in consortiums, do you have this same hold system? If so,
how's it going? If not, how are you filling holds and what did you need to
do to make it that way?

 

Many regards,

 

Dana Schwarz
Technical Services Coordinator

Lincoln Public Library

4080 John Charles Boulevard

Vineland, ON, Canada

L0R 2C0

905-562-5711

905-562-3454 (fax)

 <mailto:schwarz at lincoln.library.on.ca> schwarz at lincoln.library.on.ca

 

 

 

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