NExpress Shared Catalog

How to:

Managing the Holds Shelf

Overview -

• Using the Holds Awaiting Pickup Report, you can quickly see which holds have expired and need to be returned or moved on to the next hold.
• Using the ‘Cancel Hold’ buttons provided, you can remove the item from the patron’s account and initiate a transit of the item back Home or confirm and transfer the item to fill another hold.
• Note: This report still has some issues, the biggest being that you are not prompted to print a transfer slip.
  Other issues:
  Bug 3288 (Transit prompt not immediately triggered after hold is canceled) and
  Bug 3270 (Canceling a hold request after transfer initiated orphans item)

Steps (with illustrations below):

1. From Circulation, Open the “Holds Awaiting Pickup Report” (just under the Holds Pick List)
2. By default, the report is in reverse date order – newest holds at the top.
3. Click on the arrow buttons next to the “Available Since” heading to resort the report.
4. Now the oldest holds are at the top of the report. Many will say “Hold Over” – these have been on the Holds shelf for at least 7 days.
5. If the item and the patron who has the item on hold both belong to YOUR library, you will see the “Cancel Hold” button.
   • Clicking on Cancel Hold will remove the hold from the patron and check in the item.
   • You may double check this by checking in the item a 2nd time – it should say Available and Not checked out.
6. If the item is from a different library, you will see the “Cancel hold and return to: LIBRARY” button.
   • Clicking on this button with remove the hold from the patron and initiate a Transit from your library back to the home library IF there is not another hold on the item.
   • To double check this, using the Search the Catalog box, type in “barcode: XXXX” The status should say “In transit from Bonner Springs to Linwood” for example.
7. If the item is from a different library AND on hold for a different patron, you will still see the “Cancel hold and return to: LIBRARY” button.
   • However, when you click on this button, you will get a message saying, “Holds awaiting pickup for your library on: 08/21/09 Hold find for (The boyfriend) must be transferred – This hold placed by Patron at the library LIBRARY. Please transfer…” and SUBMIT QUERY
   • After you submit query, you will be returned to the Holds Awaiting Pickup Report
8. To print a transfer slip, check in the item and Confirm, transfer and print slip (as normal)

On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 12:30 PM, Mickey Coalwell <mcoalwell@nekls.org> wrote:
Hello everybody.

It was reported this morning that when items are removed from the holds shelf, the pop-up prompt that tells you where to send the item (usually to its home library) is not appearing. Unless the item is on hold for another patron, it does not trigger this pop up box. Checking an item in just results in a “not checked out” message. This situation may also occur when a patron has removed their own hold after an item is in transit. This has been reported to LibLime as a high importance support request. We will keep you updated.

Thank you.
Mickey @ NEKLS

Support Request:

Hello. This was received this morning from one of our member libraries,
Bonner Springs. I have tested it, and get the same results. There is no
transfer prompt for items that need to be sent “home.” Please give this
request immediate attention and importance. Thanks.
Mickey

When removing an item from our hold shelf……
We normally remove the hold and then check the item back in which triggers a pop up that tells us where to send the item.
Now, unless the item is on hold for another patron, it does not trigger this pop up box.
We tried checking items in several times and it simply states it is “not checked out.”
We found this also happens when a patron has removed their own hold after an item is in transit.
Kathleen found that if we check the item out to another card then check it in it will then trigger the pop up box that tells us where to send the item.

Items removed from hold shelf that do not belong to Bonner Springs – no pop up box saying where to send the item.

Reply received 5/29/09:

Hi Mickey,

Ryan and I did some research and testing yesterday to figure out the problem.  This seems to be caused when a hold is canceled, and there is bug #2941 filed back in Feb. 2009, which addresses this but has not been worked on.  Ryan is going to create a new bug (I believe) and combine number 2941 plus some others he thinks are related) into it and give it a higher priority.  This will help us to get a patch for the problem sooner.

Follow-up received 5/29/09:

Mickey,

Ryan did create a new bug for this – #3270 – with a severity of ‘major’ – just wanted to let you know.
**********************************

Please continue to report instances of transfer prompts failing to appear on-screen. A screen capture  would be extremely helpful. Thank you, and sorry about the continued inconvenience.  MC

On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 5:59 PM, Mickey Coalwell <mcoalwell@nekls.org> wrote:

> 1. The location displayed in the ACTION column when canceling a 'hold over'
> item is the item's home library; but often, there is a hold on the item for
> another library (not the home library). It is the next library in the holds
> queue that should display in this column, rather than the item home
> location.

Right, the script currently makes an unjustified assumption that the
item should always be transferred back to its home library.  While it
would be possible for the script to figure out the next request in the
queue, holds queue are dynamic enough that it is possible for the next
request to fill to change between generating the report and the
operator canceling a request.  Consequently, a simple message of
'Cancel hold' or 'Cancel hold and transfer' may be better.  Please
file a bug for this.
[Done. See Bug #3287, Severity MAJOR, 6/3/09 reported by MC]

> 2. Canceling the 'hold over' from waitingreserves.pl should trigger a
> transit prompt, instructing the staff person to send the item on to the hold
> library, if a hold exists on the item. This doesn't happen. Nothing happens
> when the 'hold over' is canceled. A staff person, seeing the information
> displayed in the ACTION column, would naturally assume that the item is to
> return to its home library. So, regardless of whether a hold exists, the
> 'hold over' canceled item is being returned home. We have found that a hold
> transit prompt will trigger if the canceled hold item is checked in after it
> is canceled. But this is a two-step process that we have not trained any of
> our libraries to perform. We are seeing lots of problems associated with
> this, since many hold items are being sent back to their home locations,
> instead of their next hold location

The script does appear to have nascent but incomplete functionality to
generate a transfer message.  I recommend filing a bug for this one.
[Done. See Bug #3288, Severity MAJOR, 6/3/09 reported by MC]

Regards,

Galen

From a patron’s Detail page (illustration from my account below), there appears to be a way to return a mass of items without using the barcode scanner – you check the box and hit the “Return checked items” button.  This would be great…IF IT WORKED properly.

Unfortunately, if one of those items you’ve returned without using the scanner happens to be on hold for another patron or belongs at a different library, Koha DOES NOT tell you that.  You have to scan the barcode in the Check In module to activate or trigger a hold or transfer/transit from one library to another.

So, for now…please don’t use this feature.  We are reporting this bug to LibLime today.

-Sharon

This just in from Bugzilla:

Galen says: Enabling the XSLT bib display option for the staff client has been sponsored.
When this is implemented, the default staff bib display stylesheet will include
the 245 $n and $p.

Translation: The Title: Subtitle, Number and Part information that displays correctly in the online catalog (OPAC), will SOON display in the Staff Client, too!

Titles to test this on: Go, Diego Go! and Naruto.  If you are looking for specific titles, search the patron catalog first, then the staff client.

-Sharon

UPDATE Nov 2009 – This patch has not been added to our catalog yet. Below are illustrations show the different search results you will get in the Public Catalog versus the Staff Client.

Sub-title displays in OPAC searches

Subtitle information does NOT appear in the Staff Client

UPDATE: Galen at LibLime has submitted a patch to fix this. The patch will be included in our next update.

Mickey posted the following bug today, along with a support request to LibLime: Bug 3299

It has been brought to our attention that we cannot specify a special due date on a patron’s account (say when renewing an item).  Instead, the system renews using the standard due dates specified in the circulation rules.  Hopefully this is something that can be fixed easily and quickly.  You CAN still override the renewal limit.

Tonight after close, LibLime will update our Catalog with MANY bug fixes and patches, but with relatively few “new features.”

Patron Messaging Preferences:

We paid for an enhancement that allows e-mail messaging preferences to be set at the time a new patron card is created.  Every new patron will have a default setting of ON for the Holds Notification e-mail option, but the rest are up to each individual library.   We will be setting these defaults manually after the update, tomorrow.

Saved SQL Reports can be EDITED!

We mentioned in passing to Chris Cormack that we would LOVE it if we could edit our saved reports.  He said that would be an easy fix and MADE IT SO at the Developers weekend after KohaCon 09 in Plano, TX!  Here is the result:

Partial fix Bug 2655 – Items Waiting on Hold Shelf Display as “Available” in OPAC

In the Intial Search Results – the items in green are still incorrectly identified as “Available.”

When you click into the Detail, however, a new ‘ON HOLD’ status appears.

Bug 1877 - When a Patron makes a Suggestion for Purchase, their name is now a hyperlink to their library account!  Liz will make the Notes column magically reappear, as well.  No worries.

Bug 3112 – Lists that are emailed from the OPAC look better than they used to – give it a test.  Links back to the catalog are included.  Owen Leonard wrote many of these OPAC-related tweaks and we are grateful for that!

Bug 3033 – Changed wording in OPAC regarding Holds from “Item waiting to be pulled” to “Pending.”

Bug 3093 - Enhanced ability to place holds in the Staff Client – now it works JUST like in the OPAC!  Note the fancy new check boxes and Place Hold and Add to List buttons???  Howard County library sponsored this update!

ATTENTION CATALOGERS:

A Notes Search in the OPAC or Staff Client *should* now search the 952 $z  Public Notes field (items.itemnotes) – See this patch says so…  If it is not working properly, we will ask to have our index fixed so that it does.  Feel free to use this field when creating an Item Record to note donations and such.

As always, please be aware of any strange behaviors exhibited by the OPAC or catalog directly after this update and report those (with screenshots) to the NExpresshelp hotline.

LATEST from Ryan at LibLime from May 8:

The patches addressing these holds issues have been
pushed, and I’ve gone ahead and integrated them into
your production and test instances.  The fix doesn’t address
those items that have already been affected by the bug.
Essentially,  record that the item was placed in transit was
not recorded for those items.  So you’ll continue to see some
residual effects for a bit, but those should subside as they are
filled.  This fix should clear up both the holds queue problem
and the in-transit confusion.

Have a nice weekend,

Ryan

- Please share this with your staff and patrons, as needed – Sharon

*****

Thank you all for the specific information you sent us regarding the problems with the hold pick lists. We forwarded everything you sent us to LibLime support and they were able to diagnose the problem. We received this note from support just awhile ago: “A patch for this bug was submitted last night, and as soon as it is approved, it will applied to your system.  I’m told by Monday evening at the latest.  Thanks for the update and if there is any updates or changes, I’ll let you know.”

In case you are interested, the bug and related information can be found at: http://bugs.koha.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=3195

Stay tuned…help is on the way.

Ryan at LibLime applied a patch that Galen wrote to fix the bug that caused us to turn off the Amazon enhanced content (book jackets and reviews)…so, yesterday we could turn that feature BACK ON!

We just heard from Hiawatha and the book Max (one of the offending titles) worked perfectly!

Thank you, Ryan and Galen

-NExpress

Today, we had to change our Enhanced Content (book jacket pictures) source from Amazon.com to Google books in the Patron client.  We had to turn off the Enhanced Content from Amazon in the Staff Client all together.

The good folks at LibLime suggested that those Firefox errors we were seeing for Max and Twilight and Eclipse, were caused by the Amazon book jackets.  When we turned off the connection to Amazon, the errors did disappear!  Our hope is that Amazon will fix the broken records and we can go back to them for our enhanced content in the near future.

The other issues we’ve been seeing – ‘No barcode’ in the holds table, for example – are being worked on at LibLime.  We will keep you posted.