NExpress Shared Catalog

How to:

Managing the Holds Shelf (updated 9/10 for a Managing Holds in NExpress Handout)

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.
• PTFS Harley Note: This report does not yet limit to pick up library, as it did prior to the upgrade.  The report also has some issues, the biggest being that you are not prompted to print a transfer slip.
  Other existing 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)

From Susan Bryant, Morrill Public Library in Hiawatha:

The “tag” feature in the NExpress catalog is great way for librarians
and others to share and quickly retrieve resources for programs.  I
have tagged books in several Storytime themes, including a mouse
theme, fall, crocodiles, and more.  To view these, click on “Tag
Cloud” in the patron catalog.  I would like to encourage Storytime
leaders to tag and add their own items (favorite storytime books) to
these categories, and also to create new theme categories.  New tags
must be moderated in the Koha staff client — click “Tools” and “Tags”
- moderate patron tags.

What other ways can we use of tags to share?   Maybe by tagging
successful YA and adult book club titles.  Knitting club resources.
The sky’s the limit!

Reports Training – Monday, June 15 at NEKLS

Agenda (and Reports Fest Presentation (.ppt)):

• Reports module overview
• Statistical reports – the Wizards
• Editing a Saved Report
• Creating a new report
  • Pose the question
  • Determine where the data is stored
  • Determine what to show
  • Add limitations and filters

Other Helps:

NExpresslibrary.org > Training > Reports Training

Useful Koha Database Tables (.doc) or the Full List of Koha Tables

Useful NExpress CCodes and Item Types (.pdf)

NExpress Library Branch Codes:

• ATCHISON
• BALDWIN
• BASEHOR
• BONNERSPGS  (note abbreviated spelling)
• EFFINGHAM
• HIAWATHA
• LINWOOD
• LYNDON
• MCLOUTH
• MERIDEN
• NEKLS
• NORTONVLLE  (note the abbreviated spelling)
• OTTAWA
• OVERBROOK
• SILVERLAKE
• TONGANOXIE
• VALLEYFALL  (note the missing “s”)
• WELLSVILLE
• WETMORE
• WILLIAMSBG  (note the abbreviated spelling)
• WINCHESTER

Nicole’s presentation on MySQL from KohaCon:

Placing Holds, A Frank Discussion

Time for a frank discussion about how Holds work in Koha.

The NExpress system will fill a hold by FIRST looking for an available copy at the Home Library of the patron and THEN it will look for the next available copy that IS NOT a Local Hold Only or Walk-in Only copy.  This works when a Title-Level hold is placed.

The logic behind how Koha assigns items to patrons will automatically assign a Local Hold Only item type to the first person in the Holds Queue who belongs to that library – you don’t have to do anything different.  When looking at the holds queue,  what we want to see is a lot of ‘next available’ notes in the Details and NOT ‘only item BARCODE.’

Why?  Because those ‘only item BARCODE’ notes indicate that the Patron has been forever linked to THAT specific copy of the title, instead of the next available copy.  What happens if that specific copy is weeded?  What if it’s lost?  What if the last person to check it out never brings it back?  The patron waiting for that copy to fill their hold will NEVER get what they want.  Dramatic, but true.

The Title-level hold is like the single line at the bank where you get the next available teller.  The Copy-level hold is like many little lines at each teller and if you happen to get in the wrong line and reach the teller when he goes on break…sorry!

There are legitimate uses for a copy-level hold, such as putting a hold on a specific item that needs to be repaired or for example, if  a patron calls and while you have the phone in your hand, you walk over to the shelf and pull the book and put it on hold for that patron to come pick up that evening.

Please take a few minutes to watch this (pollyanna good cop) video on placing holds in the system from both the OPAC and the Staff Client as a review and further explanation.

Placing Holds in the OPAC and Staff Client Video

- Sharon

If your receipts suddenly start including several inches of blank space and then the receipt information, check to make sure that the printing orientation is set to Portrait, not Landscape. You can check this by going to File–>Page Setup.