Clear Expired Holds and Holdshelf Report (Sierra)

By Tammy Poquette
4 min

You must clear defunct holds to keep held items circulating among your library's patrons. Clearing defunct holds generate a report that you can use to remove defunct holds from your library's hold shelf. Items removed from the hold shelf can then be reshelved, returned to their owning location, or used to satisfy holds for other patrons. It is recommended that you clear defunct holds once per day.

Important to run on a regular basis to keep the virtual hold shelf and actual hold shelf in sync.

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Clear Expired Holds and Holdshelf Function

From the Function menu, click on the Clear Expired Holds and Holdshelf.

This will bring up a screen that defaults to your library’s location. 

You can run the Expired holds and holdshelf or the INN-Reach Holdshelf report. The Expired holds and Holdself reports are grayed out for everyone.

  • Expired holds and holdshelf will clear all defunct holds.

  • You will only be allowed to see and clear the holds for your library's Location Served.

  • After running a report, Choose Clear.

    • The system will clear the holds.

    • Displays the Cleared Holds Summary Report.

    • Disables the Clear button to prevent the cleared holds report from being deleted before it is printed.

  • Close the report. The system does the following:

    • If you have not yet printed the Cleared Holds Detail Report, the system prompts you to print it.

    • If you have printed the Cleared Holds Detail Report, the system:

      • Removes the Cleared Holds Summary Report from the screen.

      • Restores the Clear button.

      • Restores the default selections for the hold type and location.

  • If the Cleared Holds Detail Report indicated that any defunct holds did not clear, wait at least five minutes and then attempt to clear the defunct holds that remain.

Sierra clears the expired holds from the hold shelf and from the associated patron records and displays a summary and table view of the items awaiting removal from the hold shelf. Return the items to their owning institution.

Possible Messages (Clearing Defunct Holds)

The following are some of the messages you might see when you attempt to clear expired holds and holdshelf of cancelled and unclaimed holds:

Clear current data without printing? This information cannot be retrieved online once you exit this function.You cleared the holds listed in the report but did not print the report before you selected the Close icon.

Your login is not set with a location served, which is required to clear the holdshelf. Please contact your system administrator at Marmot.The Limit Access to Clear Holds feature is enabled at your library. Because your current login is not associated with a location, the system does not enable you to clear defunct holds.

Another user is currently clearing the holdshelf. Please try again later. To preserve the integrity of the holdshelf, the system locks the holdshelf while a user modifies it. Concurrent attempts to clear the holdshelf receive this message.

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Clear Expired Holds and Holdshelf Function Report Variable Fields

This function contains the following elements:

  • Patron - The patron name. Corresponds to the PATRN NAME variable-length field in the patron record. If the Patron Alias feature is enabled at your library and aliases are entered in the patron records of any patrons listed, patron aliases display in parentheses after the patron name.

  • Title - The title of the item on which the hold was placed. Corresponds to the TITLE variable-length field in the bibliographic record.

  • Call Num - The call number of the item on which the hold was placed. Corresponds to the CALL # variable-length field in the item record.

  • Barcode - The item barcode. Corresponds to the BARCODE variable-length field in the item record.

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Clear Expired Holds and Holdshelf Function Statuses

The status of the hold. Possible values include:

  • CHECK IN - Staff must check in the item to activate the next hold.

  • HOLD CLEARED - The system successfully cleared the hold.

  • HOLD EXPIRED - The hold has expired (for example, the Not Wanted After date has passed).

  • PICKUP TIME EXPIRED - The patron did not pick up the item prior to the pickup expiration date.

  • REMOVED FROM SHELF - The system removed the hold.

  • TO NEXT PATRON - The system moved the hold to the next patron in the queue, and the pickup location for the subsequent hold is the same as the current hold shelf location.

  • TO NEXT PATRON (IN-TRANSIT) - The system moved the hold to the next patron in the queue, and the pickup location for the subsequent hold is different than the current hold shelf location.

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