Hold Pickup Locations Table (Admin>Parameters>Circulation - Sierra)

This documentation explains the functionality and data elements of the Hold Pickup Locations table.

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Hold Pickup Locations Table Overview

The Hold Pickup Locations table allows Marmot to group locations from the Branches table into hold pickup locations and define a label to display when those locations are used as hold pickup locations.

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The Sierra system uses the Hold Pickup Locations table in the following ways:

• When a place a hold the system limits a choice of pickup location to the locations in this table.

• When a request is made for an item in the Classics Catalog/WebPAC and the system is configured to allow patrons to choose a hold pickup location, the system displays the available pickup locations from this table.

  • MLN1 Classic Catalog/WebPAC

  • MLN2 Classic Catalog/WebPAC

• When you view holds in the Classic Catalog/WebPAC or in Express Lane, or print paging slips, hold slips, and hold notices, the system substitutes the label from the Display Name element for the label from the Branches table associated with the selected hold pickup location.

  • For example, if the branch name for the location "main" is normally "Main Stacks," the hold pickup location name might be "Main Library Circulation Desk."

• When you generate a title-level page, the system consults the Paging Priority element to determine which hold pickup locations to page and in what order.

• When you fill a hold the system consults the Agency element to give priority to holds at pickup locations within the same agency.

• When you view an item or view an entry in the Outstanding Holds Report, and the item is on the holdshelf, the system substitutes the label from the Display Name element for the label from the Branches table associated with the hold pickup location.

  • For example, if the branch name for the location "main" is normally "Main Stacks," the hold pickup location name might be "Main Library Circulation Desk".

 Under the following conditions, Sierra displays the branch name instead of the Display Name from this table:

• The pickup location chosen for the hold is a branch location.

• The branch location has no corresponding hold pickup location in this table or is associated with multiple locations in this table.

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Functionality Information

The Hold Pickup Locations table can contain a maximum of 500 entries and it reads top to bottom.

When determining paging priority, the system reads the Hold Pickup Locations table from top to bottom. If a location is associated with two pickup location entries, the entry that contains the location you want to page should appear above the location you do not want to page.

Data Elements

Each entry in the Hold Pickup Locations table contains the following elements:

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How Sierra Determines Whether an Item Satisfies a Hold

Sierra checks for title-level and item-level holds when you do either of the following with a standard circulation item:

• check in the item

• clear the item from the holdshelf

If holds are found, the system determines whether the item can satisfy any of the holds by doing the following:

• Checks the hold's Not Wanted Before date. If the Not Wanted Before date is later than the checkin date, the system does not fill the hold.

• Determines whether the hold is frozen, and if so, does not fill the hold.

• Determines whether the hold is limited to a location. If the hold is at the title-level and is limited to a location that does not match the value in the item's LOCATION field, the system does not fill the hold.

• Sierra disregards any holds if there is an available item at the patron's specified pickup location.

• Checks the hold's Not Wanted After date. If the Not Wanted After date has passed, the hold has expired. The system does not fill the hold and prompts you to print a cancellation notice.

• Checks the Holdable element of the loan rule, depending on the type of hold.

  • If the hold is at the item level, the system does not consult the loan rule and fills the hold.

  • If the hold is at the title or volume level, the system determines the loan rule to apply to the holding patron and the item.

  • The system does not assign the loan rule to the item; it uses the loan rule only to determine holdability.

• Checks the Home Pickup element of the loan rule.

  • If the hold is at the title or volume level, the system determines whether the item is eligible to fill the hold based on the Home Pickup settings of the applicable loan rule.

  • If the loan rule that applies to the holding patron and the item has Home Pickup enabled, the system fills the hold only if the pickup location matches the item location.

  The system does not assign the loan rule to the item; it uses the loan rule only to determine holdability.

If there are multiple holds on the item, title, or volume, the system evaluates each hold in sequential order until it satisfies a hold or determines that no holds can be satisfied.

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Checking In an Item that Can Satisfy a Hold

When you check in an item that can satisfy a hold, the prompts displayed depend on:

• the item's owning location

• the checkin location

• the pickup location

• your library's enabled circulation options and features

For more information about checking in items with holds under different conditions, see the following:

• Checking In a Held Item at the Pickup Location

• Checking In an Item at a Non-owning Location for Hold Pickup Elsewhere

• Checking In an Item at the Owning Location for Hold Pickup Elsewhere

• Checking In an Item that Satisfies an INN-Reach Hold

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How Sierra Determines the Loan Rule for a Transaction

The system applies a loan rule when you perform the following types of circulation transactions:

• checking out an item

• placing a hold

• placing a held item on the holdshelf

• renewing an item

To select a loan rule for a transaction, the system does the following:

1. Determines the transaction location.

   • The system uses the LOCATION fixed-length field in the item record as the transaction location.

2. Finds the relevant entry in the Loan Rule Determiner table. To do so, the system searches the Loan Rule Determiner table from bottom to top until it finds an active entry that meets the following criteria:

   • The Location element includes the transaction location.

   • The Item Type element includes the item's I TYPE.

   • The Patron Type element matches the patron's P TYPE.

   • The value in the patron's BIRTH DATE field falls within the range specified in the Age Range element.

   • The entry is active.

3. Applies the loan rule indicated in the Rule Number element of the Loan Rule Determiner entry.

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Checking In a Held Item at the Pickup Location

When you check in an item that can satisfy a hold and the requested pickup location is your location, or a Locations Served is not assigned to your login, the system does the following (regardless of the item's owning location):

1. Determines the loan rule to apply if the patron for whom the item is held checks out the item. The loan rule determines:

   • The number of days that the item can remain on the holdshelf (that is, the number of days the requesting patron has to pick up the item). The system calculates the maximum time by adding the value of the Time To Pickup element to the current date.

   • The text of the pickup notice. The system uses the Text Pickup Notice element of the loan rule to determine the appropriate pickup notice text in the Text of Circulation Notices table. (If the Text Pickup Notice value is '0', the system does not generate a pickup notice.)

   The system does not assign the loan rule to the item; it uses the loan rule for the above holdshelf calculations only.

2. Consults the Days Closed table to determine the pickup location's closed days. For each day the pickup location is closed, one day is added to the time the item remains on the holdshelf.

   1. For example, if the loan rule allows the patron seven days to pick up an item, but the library is closed on two of those days, the pickup time is extended to nine days.

3. Updates the item STATUS to '!' (ON HOLDSHELF).

4. Removes any in-transit messages from the item record.

5. Prompts you to print a hold slip for the item with the following message

To print a hold slip, choose Yes. To continue without printing a hold slip, choose No.

Note that if you elect to print a hold slip and your login has yet to save printer settings, a Print Service dialog box appears. If you want the system to use the same printer each time your login checks in an item that can satisfy a hold, you must check the Save this printer selection checkbox. For more information, see Printing with Print Templates.

6. Generates a hold pickup notice using the text determined by the applicable loan rule.

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How Sierra Determines the Order in Which to Fill Holds

When an item you check in or clear from the holdshelf has more than one hold, Sierra determines which of the holds to satisfy first. By default, the system evaluates the hold at the top of the hold queue first, then the second, third, and so on. Typically, holds higher in the hold queue were placed before holds that are lower in the hold queue, unless you have resequenced the hold queue.

If there are two or more queues for an item (item-level and/or title-level), the system looks at the top of the queues and selects the hold that was placed first.

In addition, the following optional products and features affect the order in which the system fills holds:

• Sierra gives precedence to local holds circulation and fills local holds before non-local holds.

• Sierra fills holds at the item's agency before holds at other locations. For more information, see How Agency Holds Work.

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Resequencing a Hold Queue

To resequencing the patrons in a hold queue:

1. View the hold queue for the bibliographic, or item record.

   Select the hold that you want to move.

2. Choose the Change Priority button or the Change Priority option from the right-mouse menu. The system displays the Change Hold Priority dialog box, which contains the New Priority drop-down list. The system automatically selects the number representing the hold's current priority (position) in the hold queue.

   1. For example, if "4" is selected in the New Priority list, the hold is currently the fourth hold in the queue.

3. Select a new priority from the New Priority list.

4. Choose an option:

   OK - The system moves the selected hold to the position you specified and adjusts other holds accordingly.

   Cancel - The system does not move the selected hold and returns you to viewing the hold queue.

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How Agency Holds Work

With Agency Holds, the system checks items for fillable holds by checking for holds at any hold pickup locations assigned to the agency that matches the item's agency.

This process works as follows:

The system checks for holds when staff:

• check in an item

• clear the holdshelf to keep held items circulating among your library’s patrons.

When checking in an item or clearing the holdshelf, the system does the following:

1. Sierra gives precedence to local holds circulation and fills local holds before non-local holds. If there is a local hold, the system fills that hold request. If there is more than one local hold, the system fills the first local hold in the hold queue.

2. The system fills item holds placed by your library's patrons on your library's books before filling holds placed by patrons of another library.

3. When an item whose title or volume has multiple holds is checked in, the system first determines whether the item satisfies any local holds. If so, the system fills the first local hold in the queue.
   If there are multiple local holds and/or there are holds in more than one hold queue, the system checks for the first local hold in each queue and then fills the local hold that is earliest.
   Because local holds take priority, and therefore hold queue positions might not be accurate, the system suppresses the display of hold queue positions in the STATUS column when:

4. The system takes this action even if the item is checked into a different location and must be put in transit to its Location Served (the item's owning location), even if a patron at the check-in location has also placed a hold on the item and even if that hold is earlier in the item's hold queue.

5. If the item with the hold contains an AGENCY fixed-length field in its item record, the system checks the Agency column of the Hold Pickup Locations table for a matching agency value.

   • If the system finds a matching agency value in one or more Hold Pickup Locations entries, it then checks for any holds placed for the matching hold pickup location(s).

   • If there is a hold placed for a hold pickup location for which there is an agency match, the system fills that hold. If there is more than one hold at the hold pickup location(s) for which there is an agency match, the system fills the first agency hold in the hold queue.

6. If the system does not find any agency holds, the system fills the first fillable hold in the hold queue.

For example, if an item is checked in with an AGENCY fixed-length field value of "1 South" and the Hold Pickup Locations table contains two entries assigned to the "1 South" agency, the system checks first for local holds, if precedence for local holds is enabled.

• If there are no local holds or precedence for local holds is not enabled, the system checks for holds at each location associated with the two Hold Pickup Location entries assigned to the "1 South" agency.

• If the item has a hold at one of the pickup locations assigned to the "1 South" agency, the system fills that hold even if there are holds on the item earlier in the hold queue at other locations.

• If the item has multiple holds at one or more of the pickup locations assigned the "1 South" agency, the system fills the hold associated with the "1 South" agency that is earliest in the hold queue.

• If the item does not have a hold at any of the pickup locations assigned to the "1 South" agency, the system fills the first fillable hold in the hold queue.

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