Re: [Koha-devel] availability of a reserved item
Our public library is in the process of migrating from Follett to KOHA with Liblime's help and we would like to contribute to the discussion re: how reserved items are listed in the catalog. Our current ILS, Follett, displays the status of items as "on hold" as soon as a patron or staff member place a hold on an item and it stays that way until the patron who placed the hold checks it out or the hold is cancelled. We would like to see the same thing in KOHA. While testing out our migrated data in KOHA, I actually made a note abouts "holds" showing up as "available" in both the staff client and the OPAC, and I added this to my list of potential "bugs" to mention to our project manager Beverly. I'm glad to see that this is being discussed. In our public library we see no reason not to display the true status of items that are "on hold." The suggestion "not currently on shelf" seems too confusing for patrons and staff. We agree with Susan Bennett's comment - "We try to give our patrons the best customer service possible so I'm for giving them more complete information." In our opinion, items on hold need to say clearly in the OPAC and staff client that they are "on hold", or we could be looking all over the library for them and they would be sitting on the hold shelf. I have come across another problem related to holds... I'm not sure if this is the right place to bring it up, but I'll describe it anyway. When I go to place a hold in KOHA's OPAC or using the staff client, and I want a particular volume of a multi volume set - for example our library has the DVD set for "Deadwood the complete second season"- KOHA shows you specific volume info on the material details page, but then when you click on "place hold" that info is gone. You can't tell one volume of the set from another, which is a problem if perhaps you have disc 1 and want disc 2 which is checked out by someone else. In the staff client you at least get a barcode, but unless you've previously written the barcode down of the volume you want, you are out of luck. This problem could be solved by including volume info on the page where you "place a hold on a specific copy." Thanks, Adrea Adrea Lund Head of Adult Services Grand County Public Library 257 E. Center St. Moab, UT 84532 435-259-1111 ext11
On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 6:11 PM, Adrea Lund <adrea@moablibrary.org> wrote:
Our current ILS, Follett, displays the status of items as "on hold" as soon as a patron or staff member place a hold on an item and it stays that way until the patron who placed the hold checks it out or the hold is cancelled.
That is the item-based holds mindset. Delaying the status change until the staff pulls an item from the shelf comes from the title-based mindset. In the title case, it would be foolish to change status on all 10 copies of a title in 5 different branches for one hold. But it is also troublesome to auto-pair a title hold to a specific item, considering that a given item may turn out to be damaged, not on the shelf, or otherwise unable to fill the hold. And a title-based is the only one that really makes sense when all the items are checked out. The patron shouldn't have to wait for a specific item to get returned while the same title is returned many times over. So I see the case for instantly remapping an item status could be valid, but limited to item-level holds targeting available on-shelf materials (i.e., where we expect it to succeed). The current code seems to do it for item-level holds where the holding branch is the pickup branch and ReservesNeedReturns is OFF. I think we have heard reports of problems with volume/set display previously as it relates to large numbers of textbooks. --Joe Atzberger
Adrea Lund a écrit :
I have come across another problem related to holds... I'm not sure if this is the right place to bring it up, but I'll describe it anyway.
When I go to place a hold in KOHA's OPAC or using the staff client, and I want a particular volume of a multi volume set - for example our library has the DVD set for "Deadwood the complete second season"- KOHA shows you specific volume info on the material details page, but then when you click on "place hold" that info is gone. You can't tell one volume of the set from another, which is a problem if perhaps you have disc 1 and want disc 2 which is checked out by someone else. In the staff client you at least get a barcode, but unless you've previously written the barcode down of the volume you want, you are out of luck. This problem could be solved by including volume info on the page where you "place a hold on a specific copy."
It's the right place. and I agree with your suggestion, that should be fairly easy to code if I understand it. What's the next step ? As you're working with LibLime, you should 1st ask them. But, the usual workflow could be : -file a bug on bugs.koha.org to ask for a modification in Koha - wait until it's done, or sponsor the development of the feature. Henri-Damien, the Release Maintainer for 3.0 branch (and my business partner) will take a look at this request to see if it's as easy as I think to implement. stay tuned ;-) cheers. -- Paul POULAIN http://www.biblibre.com Expert en Logiciels Libres pour l'info-doc NOUVEAU TELEPHONE : 04 91 81 35 08
participants (3)
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Adrea Lund -
Joe Atzberger -
Paul POULAIN