Questions regarding Holds
Hi! We are currently investigating how holds behave in Koha, and see if we can set it up according to our needs. We have so far not managed to do so, but the preferences concerning holds are quite complex so there might be ways we haven't tried yet - any feedback is welcome! Our current set-up: · We have nine branches (libraries), where all patrons are able to place holds on any of the branches. (They are not affiliated with any one branch per se, but with Stockholm University Library as a whole.) · Books can be returned at any library and be sent back to the books home library, but we don't send out books between the libraries. · Item level holds are not available (except for staff) We would like holds to work as follows: · Holds should be limited to all items of a specific branch, not all items (of several branches) connected to the bibliographic record. Holds can only be placed when all items are checked out on a branch. · The pick-up location should always be the same as the books home library. · A hold placed in one branch should not affect books on other branches. An example: The book "Narrative analysis" has 5 items, on three branches: · Library A, 2 items (2 checked out) · Library B, 2 items (1 checked out) · Library C, 1 item (not checked out) Patron A places a hold at Library A. The 2 items connected to that library cannot be renewed and the first one returned will fill the placed hold. Items at Library B and C are unaffected and can be checked out normally. If the checked out item on Library B is returned before any books from Library A, it will not fill the placed hold at Library A but instead go back up on the shelf at Library B. Does anyone know if this set-up is possible with Koha today? Is anyone doing this, or anything similar? Or is some development needed? Best regards, Andreas ____________________________________ Andreas Hedström Mace Librarian Stockholm University Library Stockholm University 106 91 Stockholm Tel: +46 (0) 8-16 49 17 www.sub.su.se<http://www.sub.su.se/> ____________________________________
Dear Mr. Mace, I am engaged in the Koha implementation ver. 3.20 see http://koha2. knihovnavsenory.cz . I have to say that holding functionality doesn't work correctly until now. We have only one branch: main library for simplicity . Our case should be, to enable to put hold, only if no item is free on shelf. By other words, if some issue (item) of the book title is available (free), the patron has to go to the checkout desk and to ask this free item. No remote order is allowed in this case . The hold (order) is allowed only if all items are checked out and patron must wait until some item is returned. There are two preferences influencing the Koha holds function: On shelf holds allowed = NO, Item level holds= Don't allow. It is adjustable in Administration › Circulation and fine rules for patron category. Now it works incorrectly in such manner that holds are enabled if one or more item is checked out, but on the shelf remains some free item. It should not to be enabled, until all items are checked out (no free item). This problem was investigated in bug 6837, see http://bugs.koha-community. org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=6873, the problem was resolved by Barry Cannon, see Attachment http://bugs.koha-community. org/bugzilla3/attachment.cgi?id=23162&action=diff, but this attachment is without approval (failed QA). My message is, that this problem is not satisfactory solved until now. Regards Bohdan Smilauer Library Vsenory (near Prague) 252 31 Czechia koha2.knihovnavsenory.cz ---------- Původní zpráva ---------- Od: Andreas Hedström Mace <Andreas.Hedstrom.Mace@sub.su.se> Komu: 'Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz' <Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz> Datum: 2. 10. 2015 15:12:13 Předmět: [Koha] Questions regarding Holds "Hi! We are currently investigating how holds behave in Koha, and see if we can set it up according to our needs. We have so far not managed to do so, but the preferences concerning holds are quite complex so there might be ways we haven't tried yet - any feedback is welcome! Our current set-up: · We have nine branches (libraries), where all patrons are able to place holds on any of the branches. (They are not affiliated with any one branch per se, but with Stockholm University Library as a whole.) · Books can be returned at any library and be sent back to the books home library, but we don't send out books between the libraries. · Item level holds are not available (except for staff) We would like holds to work as follows: · Holds should be limited to all items of a specific branch, not all items (of several branches) connected to the bibliographic record. Holds can only be placed when all items are checked out on a branch. · The pick-up location should always be the same as the books home library. · A hold placed in one branch should not affect books on other branches. An example: The book "Narrative analysis" has 5 items, on three branches: · Library A, 2 items (2 checked out) · Library B, 2 items (1 checked out) · Library C, 1 item (not checked out) Patron A places a hold at Library A. The 2 items connected to that library cannot be renewed and the first one returned will fill the placed hold. Items at Library B and C are unaffected and can be checked out normally. If the checked out item on Library B is returned before any books from Library A, it will not fill the placed hold at Library A but instead go back up on the shelf at Library B. Does anyone know if this set-up is possible with Koha today? Is anyone doing this, or anything similar? Or is some development needed? Best regards, Andreas ____________________________________ Andreas Hedström Mace Librarian Stockholm University Library Stockholm University 106 91 Stockholm Tel: +46 (0) 8-16 49 17 www.sub.su.se<http://www.sub.su.se/> ____________________________________ _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz https://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha"
By other words, if some issue (item) of the book title is available (free), the patron has to go to the checkout desk and to ask this free item. No remote order is allowed in this case . The hold (order) is allowed only if all items are checked out and patron must wait until some item is returned.
There are two preferences influencing the Koha holds function: On shelf holds allowed = NO, Item level holds= Don't allow. It is adjustable in Administration › Circulation and fine rules for patron category. Now it works incorrectly in such manner that holds are enabled if one or more item is checked out, but on the shelf remains some free item. It should not to be enabled, until all items are checked out (no free item).
You are correct in that this is how shelf holds work in Koha currently. If on shelf holds are not allowed, only one item need be checked out to allow a hold to be placed. You want the inverse where one available item disallow holds on the record
This problem was investigated in bug 6837, see http://bugs.koha-community. org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=6873, the problem
was resolved by Barry Cannon, see Attachment http://bugs.koha-community. org/bugzilla3/attachment.cgi?id=23162&action=diff,
but this attachment is without approval (failed QA).
You could contact the original author to see if he would update the patch, or you could hire a Koha developer to do so.
My message is, that this problem is not satisfactory solved until now.
Koha is always changing. The best way to make Koha work for you is to advocate for the features you need! If we as a community don't hear that something doesn't work for your situation, it will never change! I think this email is a good start! Kyle
Our current set-up:
· We have nine branches (libraries), where all patrons are able to place holds on any of the branches. (They are not affiliated with any one branch per se, but with Stockholm University Library as a whole.)
· Books can be returned at any library and be sent back to the books home library, but we don't send out books between the libraries.
· Item level holds are not available (except for staff)
We would like holds to work as follows:
· Holds should be limited to all items of a specific branch, not all items (of several branches) connected to the bibliographic record. Holds can only be placed when all items are checked out on a branch.
Have you ensured that your circulation rules are set to not allow holds for items for patrons from other branches? You write that any patron can place a hold at any library. This seems in conflict with this statement. Can you expand on the behavior you are trying to accomplish?
· The pick-up location should always be the same as the books home library.
That is something you can accomplish with some custom Javascript. I can gin up the javascript and post it here if you'd like.
· A hold placed in one branch should not affect books on other branches.
Can you describe how this is affecting items at other branches?
An example: The book "Narrative analysis" has 5 items, on three branches:
· Library A, 2 items (2 checked out)
· Library B, 2 items (1 checked out)
· Library C, 1 item (not checked out)
Patron A places a hold at Library A. The 2 items connected to that library cannot be renewed and the first one returned will fill the placed hold. Items at Library B and C are unaffected and can be checked out normally. If the checked out item on Library B is returned before any books from Library A, it will not fill the placed hold at Library A but instead go back up on the shelf at Library B.
Does anyone know if this set-up is possible with Koha today? Is anyone doing this, or anything similar? Or is some development needed?
It sounds like you need the functionality of this bug perhaps: http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=10993 Kyle
Hi! Thanks for your response Kyle. Some answers below: We would like holds to work as follows: · Holds should be limited to all items of a specific branch, not all items (of several branches) connected to the bibliographic record. Holds can only be placed when all items are checked out on a branch. Have you ensured that your circulation rules are set to not allow holds for items for patrons from other branches? You write that any patron can place a hold at any library. This seems in conflict with this statement. Can you expand on the behavior you are trying to accomplish? A patron should be able to place holds on libraries A, B or C. But if a hold is placed on the items connected to library A, it should not affect B and C (see more on that below) · The pick-up location should always be the same as the books home library. That is something you can accomplish with some custom Javascript. I can gin up the javascript and post it here if you'd like. That would be very interesting of course! If you feel like posting it, that would be great thanks! · A hold placed in one branch should not affect books on other branches. Can you describe how this is affecting items at other branches? What I mean is that: (1) returned books on other branches should not be marked as In Transit and sent to fill the hold and (2) checkouts on other branches should not be blocked. Does anyone know if this set-up is possible with Koha today? Is anyone doing this, or anything similar? Or is some development needed? It sounds like you need the functionality of this bug perhaps: http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=10993 That would solve some issues but not all. But it seems like some development is needed to be able to fulfill our needs. Hopefully these changes will make sense to the rest of the community too (and be optional, of course). Best regards, Andreas
The javascript solution won't work in your situation because you are forcing record level holds, not item level holds. So basically, the first holdable item checked in for a record for that patron is used to fill the patron's hold, but you don't want the patron to be able to select the pickup branch, instead you want the pickup branch to be set to item's holding branch at the time the item is trapped to fill that hold. This could definitely be done with modification to the holds code. Another much less elegent solution would be to add a trigger to your database so that when a hold is created or updated with an itemnumber, the pickup branch is set to the item's holding branch. You could then hide the pickup branch selector with css and/or javascript. I'm not sure how well this would work in practice, but it's certainly a possibility. That being said, getting the feature into the code seems like a far better solutions. Filing a bug report for this enhancement would be a good start. If you add the bug number to this thread and I can find some extra time I'll take a crack at it, but the sure-fire approach would be to hire a developer to add the feature. Kyle http://www.kylehall.info ByWater Solutions ( http://bywatersolutions.com ) Meadville Public Library ( http://www.meadvillelibrary.org ) Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org ) Mill Run Technology Solutions ( http://millruntech.com ) On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 9:46 AM, Andreas Hedström Mace < Andreas.Hedstrom.Mace@sub.su.se> wrote:
Hi!
Thanks for your response Kyle. Some answers below:
We would like holds to work as follows:
· Holds should be limited to all items of a specific branch, not all items (of several branches) connected to the bibliographic record. Holds can only be placed when all items are checked out on a branch.
Have you ensured that your circulation rules are set to not allow holds for items for patrons from other branches? You write that any patron can place a hold at any library. This seems in conflict with this statement. Can you expand on the behavior you are trying to accomplish?
A patron should be able to place holds on libraries A, B or C. But if a hold is placed on the items connected to library A, it should not affect B and C (see more on that below)
· The pick-up location should always be the same as the books home library.
That is something you can accomplish with some custom Javascript. I can gin up the javascript and post it here if you'd like.
That would be very interesting of course! If you feel like posting it, that would be great thanks!
· A hold placed in one branch should not affect books on other branches.
Can you describe how this is affecting items at other branches?
What I mean is that: (1) returned books on other branches should not be marked as In Transit and sent to fill the hold and (2) checkouts on other branches should not be blocked.
Does anyone know if this set-up is possible with Koha today? Is anyone doing this, or anything similar? Or is some development needed?
It sounds like you need the functionality of this bug perhaps: http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=10993
That would solve some issues but not all. But it seems like some development is needed to be able to fulfill our needs. Hopefully these changes will make sense to the rest of the community too (and be optional, of course).
Best regards,
Andreas
participants (3)
-
Andreas Hedström Mace -
Bohdan Šmilauer -
Kyle Hall