User Tools

Site Tools


circ:holdgroups

Hold Groups

Available as of the 3.8 upgrade January 2022.

Hold groups are designed to store lists of patrons that wish to have holds placed for them on selected items. For example, a library book club may store a list of patrons who wish to have each upcoming month's reading selection placed on hold for them. Staff can reuse this list each month, adding and deleting patrons from it upon request. Or, a library may wish to store a list of patrons who are waiting for the new release by a popular author - staff could add patrons to the list upon request, and then when the title becomes available, can place holds for all of the patrons on the list at once.

How to Create a Hold Group

  1. Go to Circulation > Hold Groups
  2. Click on New Hold Group
  3. Enter a name, a description (optional), and select whether the hold group will be for the local branch or the regional library system.
  4. Choose whether or not the hold group should be visible to patrons within the OPAC or not.
  5. Click Create Bucket.

Note: If you wish to edit or delete a hold group, double-click on it to open it in the Current Users tab and then click the Hold Groups dropdown to Edit or Delete it.

Add Users to Hold Group

  1. From the Hold Groups tab, double-click on the hold group that you wish to add users to. This tells the system which hold group you wish to access and will take you to the Current Users tab.
    • If you need to open a hold group created by a different staff member, they will need to give you the hold group ID number. Go to the Current Users tab, click on the Hold Groups button, then click Shared Hold Group. Enter the ID and click Load Bucket.
  2. Move to the Add Users tab.
  3. Enter the barcode of the patron you wish to add. (If typing it in, you will need to click Enter.) You should see the patron load on the list below. Repeat for each patron.
  4. After all patrons have been entered, select them and click Add All to Hold Group. This will move them to the Current Users tab.

Alternatively, if you are the person who created the hold group, you can add patrons directly from the patron search results.

  1. Do a patron search.
  2. Select the correct patron from the search results.
  3. Click Add to Bucket.
  4. Select the appropriate Hold Groups bucket.
  5. Upon success, a message will briefly appear on the lower-right corner.

You cannot do this with a hold group created by another staff member because the Add to Bucket list will only display ones you created.

How to Place Holds for a Hold Group

  1. In order to place a hold for a hold group, you will need the database ID for the title record you wish to place a hold for. Search the catalog, then click on the title you wish to place a hold for to open the title details. You will see the Database ID in the title summary bar. (This number also appears in the URL.) Copy that number.
  2. Go to the Hold Groups tab and double-click on the hold group you wish to place a hold for.
  3. Go to the Hold Events tab.
  4. Click on New Hold Group Event, then enter the database ID. Uncheck the “Override all hold-blocking conditions possible?” option if it is checked so that you do not inadvertently place holds for patrons that are blocked.
  5. Click Create Event.
  6. The page will refresh and tell you how many holds were placed. If the hold could not be placed for one or more of the patrons in the hold group, a link for “Download patron list for failed holds” will appear. Click on that link to see the patron barcodes - you may wish to look up each patron to see why the hold failed.

Patron View

Patrons can see which Hold Groups they are currently a member of, and remove themselves from any of them they wish.

  1. Log in to the OPAC and go to My Account.
  2. Click on Holds, then Hold Groups.
  3. The list of hold groups the patron is currently a member of will display. (The list will be blank if they are not a member of any hold groups.)
  4. Click “Remove me” next to any hold group the patron no longer wishes to be a member of.
circ/holdgroups.txt · Last modified: 2021/12/31 16:26 by tmccanna