Agency Holds
If your library has acquired the Agency Holds product, you can assign agency values to hold pickup locations to ensure that holds are filled at pickup locations appropriate for each item.
Requirements
Your library must be using the Consortium Management Extensions product in order to use the Agency Holds product.
Setting Up the Agency Holds Product
To set up the Agency Holds product:
- Open the Hold Pickup Locations table for editing.
- For each hold pickup location entry you wish to assign an agency, specify the agency value in the Agency element of the Hold Pickup Locations table.
How Agency Holds Work
If your library has acquired the Agency Holds product, the system checks items for fillable holds by checking for holds at any hold pickup locations assigned 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 at libraries using the Automatic Status Holdshelf model
Libraries Using the Multiple Locations Holdshelf Model
At libraries using the Agency Holds product with the Multiple Locations Holdshelf model, the system checks for holds during checkin only.
When checking in an item or clearing the holdshelf, the system does the following:
- If your library has enabled the Holds: Give precedence to local holds circulation option, the system checks for 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.
- If your library has not enabled the Holds: Give precedence to local holds circulation option, or this option is enabled but there are no local holds, the system checks for agency holds:
- 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.
- If the system does not find any agency holds, the system fills the first fillable hold in the hold queue.
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 checkin location has also placed a hold on the item and even if that hold is earlier in the item's 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 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 the "1 South" agency. If the item has a hold at one of the pickup locations assigned 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 the "1 South" agency, the system fills the first fillable hold in the hold queue.