Known Issue: Placing Holds
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
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