Managing Holds

If a patron wants to check out an item, but the item is not currently available, you can place a hold (sometimes called a "reserve") on the item for the patron.

An item might be unavailable for many reasons, such as:

Another patron has checked out the item
The patron cannot find the item (that is, the item is not shelved correctly)
The item is at another branch and needs to be paged from that location

To place and manage holds, see the following:

Choosing the Type of Hold to Place
Fulfilling Holds
Managing the Hold Queue
Paging for an Item to Fulfill a Hold
Tracking Holds Placed

For more information on the variety of options Sierra offers that enable you to modify how the system processes holds, see Optional Holds Functionality.

Choosing the Type of Hold to Place

You can place one of three types of holds for a patron:

Item-level Hold: You place a hold for a patron on an item record (for example, a specific copy of a book). If an item record contains data in the VOLUME field, you can place an item-level hold on a specific volume of a set. An item-level hold can be satisfied when that item is returned to the library system.
Volume-level Hold: If your library has acquired the Volume Level Holds product, you can place a hold for a patron on the first available copy of a volume. A volume-level hold can be satisfied when any item associated with the specified volume record is returned to the library system.
Title-level Hold: You place a hold for a patron on the first available copy of a title. A title-level hold attaches to the bibliographic record for the desired title; for this reason, title-level holds are sometimes referred to as "bibliographic-level holds." A title-level hold can be satisfied when any item associated with the specified bibliographic record is returned to the library system.

For information on placing holds, see:

Fulfilling Holds

A hold is fulfilled as follows:

An item that could satisfy the hold:
1. is checked in
2. is used to satisfy the hold (for example, staff allow the item to fulfill the hold)
Library staff place the item on a holdshelf and send a hold pickup notice to the patron.
If the patron checks out the item before the pickup by date, the system fulfills the hold. If the patron does not pick up the item by the pickup date, staff clear the item from the holdshelf.

For information on the order in which holds are filled, see How Sierra Determines the Order in Which to Fill Holds.

Managing the Hold Queue

A hold queue is a sequenced list of patron hold requests on an item, volume, or bibliographic record. The position of a hold within a hold queue is determined by the date and time that the hold was placed (unless the queue has been resequenced).

In a hold queue you can:

Add patrons to an item-, volume-, or title-level hold queue.
Resequence the order of patrons in a hold queue.
Cancel or modify holds on a bibliographic, volume, or item record.
Transfer an item hold from one item hold queue to another.
Limit any hold queue to items to be picked up from your location.

Paging for an Item to Fulfill a Hold

To specify the time after which the system transfers an unsatisfied page to a different item, set the Pageslips: Number of hours before page can be transferred circulation option.

To specify the message the system prints on paging slips, set the Pageslips: Text # circulation option.

If you place a title, volume, or item hold on an available item that belongs to another location, you can page for the item to fulfill the hold.

To page for an item to satisfy an item-level hold, see Placing a Hold on an Item that Is Not Checked Out and Transferring Paged Items.
To page for an item to satisfy a title- or volume-level hold, see Generating Title- and Volume-level Pages.

Tracking Holds Placed

If patrons place a large number of holds on a particular item, your library might want to acquire additional copies of that item. You can track holds the following ways:

To track high-demand holds, see Generating High-Demand Holds Reports.
To generate purchase alerts for frequently held items, set the Holds: Number of holds before purchase alert circulation option. Create a list to view the Purchase ALERTS system-generated review file.