Request Pick-Up, Second Pick-Up, and Cancelled Request Notices

Polaris offers three types of notices related to hold requests: request pick-up, second pick-up, and cancelled request notices. See: Set up request pick-up, second pick-up, and cancelled request notices.

Note:
A separate SQL job, Hold Notice Processing, processes e-mail and text message (SMS) first and second hold notices separately from print notices and phone notices. Designed to run multiple times per day, the job runs every 4 hours from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m by default. See Hold Notice Processing for E-Mail and Text Message Notices.

Request Pick-Up Notices

Request pick-up notices inform patrons that an item that fills a hold or ILL request is available for pick-up. When an item is trapped An item is said to be trapped for a hold when an item that fills a request is scanned at circulation and the system links the item to a specific request, either automatically or by displaying a message that prompts you for a decision. for a hold request and the item’s circulation status changes to Held, the item is included in request notice processing. The patron who should receive the notice is identified by the link to the request. The notification library for hold request notices is always the pick-up library. If the pick-up library is changed, a new notice is generated when the item status becomes Held at the new pick-up branch. (If the notice has not been generated for the first pick-up location, the first notice is deleted.) ILL items are also included in request pick-up notice processing. When an item record is created for an ILL request, and the circulation status becomes Held, the item is included in the request notice.

Request pick-up notices can be delivered as print notices, e-mail notices, by telephone, or by text message. Print and e-mail request notices include the following information:

Note:
Text messages must be brief. The default text message for request pick-up notices, which can be edited in Polaris Language Editor, is The item you requested [first 20 characters of title] is available for pickup at branch [branch display name] until [unclaim date]. One message is sent for each item held. If items are held at more than one branch, the patron will receive a notice from each branch.

Library return address - Taken from the Return address field in the pick-up library’s organization record. If no return address is specified, the notice uses the organization’s Primary address.
Date - Date the notice was generated
Printed notice text - Polaris supplies default text for the header and introductory paragraph, which you can edit in Polaris Language Editor.
E-mail notice text - Polaris supplies default text for the subject line and introductory paragraph, which you can edit in Polaris WebAdmin (Language Editor).
System-supplied list of items to pick up - The items are sorted by title. Each entry includes the title, author, item material type, item barcode, and Held-Till date.

When request notices are generated, the date is recorded in the appropriate item records, the notices are posted in the transaction file, and the notice queue is cleared.

Second Pick-Up Notices

You can follow up a patron’s first hold pick-up notice with a second notice, sent after a time interval you specify, for requests that remain with a Held status. The second notice can be sent by print, phone, e-mail, or TXT message. The default text is the same as that defined for the first notice, and can be edited in WebAdmin (Polaris Language Editor).

The notice is sent if the number of days specified is reached and the request status is still Held. If the hold request status becomes Unclaimed after the process to send the second notice runs, the notice will be removed from the notification queue. Your settings also apply to ILL requests, which do not have an Unclaimed status; in this case, the second notice is sent if the item has not been checked out within the specified period.

Note:
There is no program dependency between the notice interval for the 2nd hold notice and your setting for Number of days held for pickup, specified in the Requests parameter Holds options. If the notice interval is greater than the number of days held for pickup, the notice is never sent, so you may want to coordinate these settings.

When the notice is sent, it appears in the patron’s notification history as 2nd hold notice. The item record also shows the notice date. Status reports such as Delivery Failure reports include the second hold notice with the hold notices. The second hold notice is also included in the total hold notice count for statistical reports.

Note:
Because multiple first and second hold notices may appear in a single print, e-mail, or text message notice, the notification log lists the type for all hold pick-up notices as 2 (regular hold notice request).

For best results with printed notices, the Holds overnight processing job should run before the Notices processing job.

Cancelled Request Notices

Cancelled request notices are sent when a request status changes from Active, Pending, or Inactive to Cancelled. A request status changes to Cancelled in these circumstances:

The last item linked to a bibliographic record is deleted
A purchase order is cancelled
A request is manually cancelled from the staff client
A request is cancelled from PAC

However, cancelled request notices are not sent in these circumstances:

A request status changes from Held to Unclaimed, then changes to Cancelled
A Held item is checked out to another patron, and the original request is not reactivated
A staff member is prompted to hold an item to fill a request but declines to fill the request with that item, and chooses not to reactivate the request
An item is checked out to a patron who has a request for it, and the request status is still Pending. The request is automatically cancelled because the patron has the item.
A request is accidentally cancelled, then reactivated for the same patron before notice processing

Notices for Integrated Ebook Requests

If your library offers PAC users integrated eContent such as cloudLibrary ebooks, patrons may request ebooks and cancel their requests from the PAC. Notices for “held” ebooks (requests available for checkout) and cancelled requests are available for ebooks. These notices can be sent via e-mail, TXT message, or patron preference if the preference is one of these methods.

Note:
Second pick-up notices are not available for ebooks.

When ebook request notices are enabled, the patron receives a notice when a requested ebook is available for checkout and download. Request notices are sent when the request is placed in PAC and when the request is placed in the cloudLibrary (former 3M Cloud Library) application. The subject line and notice text can be edited in Polaris WebAdmin; the Notice “product” language strings are NOTICE_EBOOKREQAVAILSUB (subject line) and NOTICE_EBOOKREQAVAILBODY (notice text).

The same text defined in WebAdmin is used for both e-mail and TXT notices. Text can be defined for the hold notice and the hold cancel notice, but the text defined for the notice will be used in both the email and TXT notification messages. Because of the character limit for TXT messages, the text of the notification is kept to a minimum.

When cancelled ebook request notices are enabled, the patron receives a notice when he or she cancels the request from the PAC patron account. When the patron cancels multiple requests in one action, these notices are combined in one e-mail notice. TXT notices are sent separately due to message length restrictions. (If the patron cancels a request from the cloudLibrary application, no notice is sent.) The subject line and notice text can be edited in WebAdmin; the PowerPAC “product” language strings are PACML_EBOOKCANCELSUBJ (subject line) and PACML_EBOOKCANCEL (notice text).

The notices are sent close to the time of the action taken in PAC, according to the settings of the patron’s branch. Request and request cancel notices appear in the patron’s notification history. The notices are logged with other notice types, and failures are reported in the e-mail and TXT failure reports.