Setting Up Hold Requests

You can let borrowers place requests for items that are not available for checkout (such as items in mending, checked out to another borrower, or on order). When one of these items become available, you place it on hold until the borrower who requested it can pick the item up. You can define rules in Horizon to help you handle hold requests. For example, you can choose whether to require borrowers to place requests through a staff member, or to let them place their own requests from your PAC. You can also choose how to notify borrowers that their requested items are ready to pick up.

You can choose to let your circulation staff fill a hold request with the first available item that is checked in at a specific pickup location, even if another copy is in transit. You can also choose whether Horizon displays a prompt suggesting that borrowers verify or update their personal information when circulation staff places a hold request for them.

When a requested item becomes available, Horizon keeps the item on the hold shelf for a time period you specify. If the borrower who made the request does not pick up the item before that period expires, Horizon cancels the hold. You can choose to include a location’s closed days in the hold shelf expiry period.

Other types of requests (such as Closed Stack Access or interlibrary loan requests) may require different setup tasks. (For instructions, see the guide for the specific product.)

You need to set up several areas of Horizon to correctly regulate how Horizon manages hold requests. You can also set up to charge fees for hold requests. For more information, see Charging Fees for Hold Requests.

This section gives an overview of those setup tasks. It also explains these topics:

Allow or disallow requests against materials on loan to the requesting borrower
Setting Up the Request Privileges Parameter
Working with Parameter 29 (Request Privileges)
Setting Up Maximum Requests for Title
Setting Up Maximum Requests for BTYPEs and ITYPEs
Setting Up Loan Overrides for Long Request Queues
Understanding Transit Holds
Populating the pickup_location_sort Table
Choosing Pull List Sort Priority
Setting Up the History of Requests
Removing the Contact Information Prompt from the Hold Request Window

 


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