Check for Owning-site Holds before Allowing INN-Reach Renewals

If the "Check for Owning-site Holds before Allowing INN-Reach Renewals" feature is enabled for an INN-Reach System, INN-Reach checks whether there are holds on the item at the owning site before the INN-Reach item can be renewed from the patron site. During the renewal process, this feature displays additional messages to patron site staff and the renewing patron, communicating the results of the check for owning-site holds.

To determine whether holds are present at the owning site, the system queries the INN-Reach Catalog for the number of holds listed in subfield $f of the ITEM (i949) field in the corresponding institution record. If the query to the INN-Reach Catalog is unsuccessful, the system changes the STATUS of the virtual item to '+' (RENEWAL PENDING), sends a query message to the owning site, and waits for a response. In most cases, INN-Reach can determine if there are holds on an item at its owning site within a few minutes. However, the length of this process can vary based on network connections and system activity levels.

Based on the information returned from either the INN-Reach Catalog or the owning site, the system does one of the following:

• If there are owning-site holds on the item, the system updates the virtual item STATUS to '=' (RENEWAL DENIED) and retains the original due date.
• If there are no owning-site holds on the item, the system updates the due date in the virtual item record, changes the virtual item's status to "RENEWED", and sends a circulation message to the owning site. At the owning site, the circulation message adds the new due date to the item record.

Checking for Holds During Staff Renewal

When the patron site staff attempts to renew the item, Sierra displays one of the following messages depending on the status of the query about owning-site holds:

• If the system can immediately determine that there are owning-site holds on the item, the following message displays:
  
  
  Item i000000000@site1 has holds for patrons at site site1. It cannot be renewed.
  
  
• If the system can immediately determine that there are no owning-site holds on the item, the following message displays:
  
  
  The item was renewed.
  
  
• If the system cannot immediately determine where or not there are owning-site holds on the item, the following message displays:
  
  
  The due date of the following item was not altered:
  Checking availability of item i00000000 at owning library.
  Please check back to find out if renewal request has been allowed.
  
  This message can be customized for each Local Server. To have this message customized, ask your Central System Administrator to contact Innovative.

Choose OK to clear any of these messages.

Checking for Holds During Patron Renewal

When the patron attempts to renew the INN-Reach item in the WebPAC, the following occurs:

• If the system can immediately determine that there are owning-site holds on the item, it displays the following message to the patron:
  
  
  Not renewable (item has holds)
  
  
• If the system can immediately determine that there are no owning-site holds on the item, it renews the item, updating the item status in the patron record display.
• If the system cannot immediately determine whether or not there are holds at the owning site, it displays the following message:
  
  
  System is checking the availability of the item for renewal. Please check back later to find out if your renewal was allowed.
  
  When the system obtains the information from the owning site, it displays the updated virtual item status when the patron views his record in WebPAC.