FAQs: Managing the Holds Shelf

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If my library policies define how long users have to pick up holds before they expire on the Holds shelf, how do I pull holds that have not been picked up?

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How do I change the Pickup By date for a hold?

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If my library policies do not define a hold expiration period for items on the Holds shelf, how do I pull holds that have not been picked up?

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What is the difference between the Expire Available Holds report and the Expire Holds report?

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How do I pull holds that have been suspended?

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How do I send each library’s list of holds to remove from the Holds shelf directly to someone in that library?

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Why does the Clean Holds Shelf report list items that display a current location of CHECKEDOUT?

If my library policies define how long users have to pick up holds before they expire on the Holds shelf, how do I pull holds that have not been picked up?

If the Library wizard’s Days for Holds to Expire on the Shelf attribute is defined on the Circulation tab, you can pull holds that have not been picked up by patrons from the Holds shelf after the specified number of days by running the Expire Available Holds (Expshlfholds) report and the Clean Holds Shelf (Cleanholdshelf) report.

To pull expired holds that have not been picked up from the Holds shelf

On the Reports toolbar, click the Schedule Reports wizard.

Click the Circulation report group tab.

Under Report Name, select the Expire Available Holds report, and click Setup & Schedule.

Click the Hold Selection tab. Notice that by default the Available Expiration Date is set to select available holds from the beginning of the system to the day before the run date of the report, and the Date Cancellation Notified is set to NEVER. These default selections will select holds that have not been picked up within the time period specified by the Library policy and for which hold cancellation notices have not been printed. It is recommended that you use these defaults.

Make selections on the Holdblanket Selection tab if you want the report to select available blanket holds that should be removed from the Holds shelf.

Click the General Notice tab, and make selections. Select the Count as a Notice Sent check box to increase the notice counter by 1 when the hold expiration and cancellation notices are printed by this report.

Click Schedule to make any report scheduling selections.

Click Schedule to schedule and run the report.

After the report finishes, run the Clean Holds Shelf report. View the report output for instructions on the items that are to removed from the Holds shelf. If an item has another hold on it, the report makes the next hold available. An item may need to be reshelved, put in transit back to the owning library, or put in transit to fill another hold.

Paper notices produced by the Expire Available Holds report must be mailed to patrons to notify them that their holds have expired and have been cancelled.

How do I change the Pickup By date for a hold?

If the Library wizard’s Days for Avail Holds to Expire attribute is defined, SirsiDynix Symphony automatically calculates the Pickup By date when the hold is made available. If you want to change the Pickup By date for the user’s hold, use the Modify User Holds wizard or the Modify Item Holds wizard.

If my library policies do not define a hold expiration period for items on the Holds shelf, how do I pull holds that have not been picked up?

If your library does not define a hold expiration period of items on the Holds shelf using the Library policy, use the Expire Holds (Expireholds) report and the Clean Holds Shelf report to remove items from the Holds shelf that have not been picked up within the specified number of days.

To pull unexpired holds that have not been picked up from the Holds shelf

Make sure the Hold Pickup Notice (Pickup) report is scheduled to run regularly so users are notified to pick up their holds, and the Date Notified field in the hold record is updated. The Expire Holds report will use the Date Notified field to determine which holds have not been picked up within the selected number of days before the report run date.

On the Reports toolbar, click the Schedule Reports wizard.

Click the Circulation report group tab.

Under Report Name, select the Expire Holds report, and click Setup & Schedule.

Click the Hold Selection tab, and clear the default selections.

On the Hold Selection tab, in the Date Notified field, use the Date Range gadget to select a date that starts before the number of days before the report run date that you want to hold an item on the Holds shelf for pickup, such as 10. This will select holds whose pickup notice went out the specified number of days (10) ago or before.

In the Available option, click Yes.

In the Date Cancellation Notified field, use the Date Range gadget to select NEVER.

Click Schedule to make any report scheduling selections.

Click Schedule to schedule and run the report.

After the Expire Holds report runs, run the Clean Holds Shelf report to generate a list of INACTIVE holds that need to be removed from the Holds shelf because the holds are no longer active.

What is the difference between the Expire Available Holds report and the Expire Holds report?

The Expire Available Holds report select holds that are already available and on the Holds shelf, but have not been picked up on or before the Pickup By date in the hold record, and make them INACTIVE. The Pickup By date is calculated when the hold becomes available, using the Days for Avail Holds to Expire attribute in the Library policy. Holds that have not been picked up on or before the Pickup By date are selected by the report, and the Hold Status is changed to INACTIVE with a hold reason of ”Hold Expired While On Shelf” (EXP_ONSHLF).

The Expire Holds report selects holds that were never filled by the expiration date. The report selects holds that expired on or before the Expiration Date in the hold record, or on or before the default expiration date defined with the Days for Holds to Expire attribute in the Library policy. The Expire Holds report changes the Hold Status to INACTIVE with a hold reason of ”Hold Has Expired” (EXPIRED).

How do I pull holds that have been suspended?

Libraries can pull holds that have been suspended from the Holds shelf. If the hold is suspended, the hold needs to be removed from the Holds shelf to fill other outstanding holds or to be reshelved.

To pull suspended holds from the Holds shelf

In the Schedule Reports wizard or the Scheduled Reports wizard, select the Clean Holds Shelf report for editing.

Select the Hold Selection tab, and clear the default selections on the tab.

When a hold is suspended, it is flagged for removal from the Holds shelf, so no further selections are necessary to select suspended holds for this report. However, if desired, use the Date Range gadget in the Date Suspended field to select holds that were suspended on, before, or after a certain date.

Schedule and run the report.

After the Clean Holds Shelf report runs, use the generated list to remove items from the Holds shelf.

How do I send each library’s list of holds to remove from the Holds shelf directly to someone in that library?

If an Administrator level of user schedules the report, other levels of users at the various libraries can not display the report in the finished list. The Administrator can easily send the entire finished report to one or more specified users with the Email to Individual(s) option when the report is scheduled. However, the Administrator can schedule the report such that each separate list of holds to remove from the Holds shelf in an individual library will be mailed to the library’s email address specified in the library’s user record.

To automatically mail a list of holds to be removed from the Holds shelf in each library to the individual library’s email address

Go the Configuration Module toolbar, click the Module Configuration wizard, and click the Report wizard. Make sure the Allow Emailing of Notices check box is selected, and click Save.

Go to the Reports toolbar and select the Report Session wizard.

Under Setup & Schedule, select the Send Notices Automatically check box.

Under View, Print, or Email Finished Notice Reports, in the Recipients option, select either All or Only Those With Email Addresses. Click OK.

In the Schedule New Reports wizard or the Scheduled Reports wizard, double-click the Clean Holds Shelf report. Make selections for the report if desired. Do not select the Print Separate Reports for Each Library check box on the Print Separate Reports for Each Library tab unless you want the individual lists to appear in the finished reports list.

Click Schedule.

Under Printing/Distribution, make sure the Auto Email Recipients With Email Addresses in Their Patron Records check box is selected.

Click Schedule to schedule and run the report. When the report is scheduled, the email address specified in the library’s user record receives only the list of holds to be removed from the Holds shelf in that library by email.

A valid email address must be entered in the EMAIL entry of the Library user’s primary address for the library to receive its list of holds to remove from the Holds shelf.

For example, if the user ID for the Main Library is MAIN, the user record for user ID MAIN must have an email address like mainlib@citylibs.org in the EMAIL entry of the primary address in the user record. If SirsiDynix Symphony is configured to automatically email notices, the Main Library receives by email a list of holds to remove from the Holds shelf in the Main Library when the Clean Holds Shelf report is run.

Why does the Clean Holds Shelf report list items that display a current location of CHECKEDOUT?

The Clean Holds Shelf report will display the item’s current location (where the item currently is). If the item associated with the inactive hold is currently checked out or not on the hold shelf, the current location will reflect this in the report output.

For example, user has an item on hold ready to be picked up (the hold is available). But, the user cancels the hold which makes the hold’s internal status available/inactive. Before the hold is cleared by the Clean Holds Shelf report, the item is charged to another user. When the Clean Holds Shelf runs, it clears the available/inactive hold for the charged item and reports it in the report output. The item’s current location in the report displays as CHECKEDOUT. This is correct since the item is technically charged.