Placing and Processing Simultaneous Holds Issues

In the last few months, we have noticed an increase in ‘strange holds behavior‘ such as one patron receiving two copies of book or movie, when only one of the two items will actually fulfill the patron’s hold.  The more we thought about this, the more we realized that it was an issue of timing and of Koha, a Web-based program, mishandling simultaneous submissions of data.  For example two libraries processing their Pick list at the same time or two libraries checking in items or placing holds at the same time.  Liz and I devised a test and caught this on video to share with the developers, but we want to share it with you, as well.

This five-minute video shows a number of problems that can occur when items are picked, holds are placed and transfers are initiated at about the same time on different copies of the same item.

This three-minute video shows what happens when you receive an item routed to you to fill a ‘phantom’ hold.

Unfortunately, to fix these issues we will need to have an enhancement written.  With our catalog in limbo at the moment, we cannot say when such a fix could be written and applied to our Koha installation.  I hope that being aware of how this happens will help decrease the frustration and confusion somewhat.