Staff Placed Holds in Pika

Owned by Ashley Sneesby, created
Last updated: Feb 20, 2024
2 min read

This documentation describes the process for placing staff initiated holds for patrons using Pika.

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Why use Pika to place holds for patrons?

Placing holds for patrons using Pika ensures that staff are placing bib level holds on items in the catalog rather than item level holds. Bib level holds are preferred because bib level holds typically entail that patrons will receive their materials more quickly.

Staff may need to place holds on the behalf of patrons who are unfamiliar with using the catalog or unable to use the catalog e.g. homebound patrons.

The staff placed holds function is different than using Masquerade Mode to navigate an account on behalf of a patron and doesn’t have the same requirements for the user account. Please review the Masquerade Mode documentation for more details about use cases for Masquerade Mode.

The staff placed holds functionality for Pika will only facilitate holds on physical items in the ILS. If you need to place holds on behalf of patrons for eContent items from Pika (specifically Overdrive) you have to use the Masquerade Mode functionality.

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Process for staff placed holds

Login into your library’s Pika interface with an account that has a known Staff P-type or an account with Pika permissions.

Perform a search for the title the patron would like to place on hold.

Click on the Place Hold button from the search results or from the full record view.

From the Place Hold pop-up window, enter the barcode for the patron you’re placing a hold for in the staff use field and click on Submit Hold Request to complete the action.

If there are any issues with the account of the patron you’re placing a hold for, you’ll return the same messaging from the API that a patron would if they were attempting to place a hold themselves.

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