A few questions about handling holds in v.3.01.00.032. It appears that there's no way to get a list of holds to be pulled emailed automatically, i.e., staff need to run the "Holds to pull" report manually on a regular basis. Is this correct? What should happen next? The report says "The following holds have not been filled. Please retrieve them and check them in." What does "check in" mean here? We shouldn't check the material out to the patron as s/he won't have it in hand yet. The OPAC updates the item's status to "On hold", so that's taken care of, but patrons have no indication of how many patrons are ahead of them in the queue. Is this a new feature that others would like to see as well? Any other changes in holds management planned for v3.2? Thank you, Cab Vinton, Director Sanbornton Public Library Sanbornton, NH
Cab, You might want to read through the holds section in the manual - but I'll try and explain here too :) You do have to view the report - but it's important to know that it's real-time data so you know what items are on hold as of the time you're clicking on the report (I think - if not it's accurate as of when your cron ran - someone can correct me here). What you want to do is go out to the shelves and find the books in question. Bring them to your circ computer and check them all in by using the check in tool. This will mark the items as waiting for the patron at the library instead of just 'on hold'. Then when the patron comes to the library they can check the item out. Patrons can see where they are in the queue if you turn on the OPACDisplayRequestPriority system preference - if you don't turn this on - you as staff can still see where people are in the queue by clicking the holds tab on the record itself in the staff client. Did I answer everything? --- Nicole C. Engard Open Source Evangelist, LibLime (888) Koha ILS (564-2457) ext. 714 nce@liblime.com AIM/Y!/Skype: nengard http://liblime.com http://blogs.liblime.com/open-sesame/ On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 10:21 AM, Cab Vinton<bibliwho@gmail.com> wrote:
A few questions about handling holds in v.3.01.00.032.
It appears that there's no way to get a list of holds to be pulled emailed automatically, i.e., staff need to run the "Holds to pull" report manually on a regular basis. Is this correct?
What should happen next? The report says "The following holds have not been filled. Please retrieve them and check them in." What does "check in" mean here? We shouldn't check the material out to the patron as s/he won't have it in hand yet.
The OPAC updates the item's status to "On hold", so that's taken care of, but patrons have no indication of how many patrons are ahead of them in the queue. Is this a new feature that others would like to see as well?
Any other changes in holds management planned for v3.2?
Thank you,
Cab Vinton, Director Sanbornton Public Library Sanbornton, NH _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
The report is accurate as of when the holds queue cron ran. Liz Rea NEKLS On Jul 10, 2009, at 9:26 AM, Nicole Engard wrote:
Cab,
You might want to read through the holds section in the manual - but I'll try and explain here too :)
You do have to view the report - but it's important to know that it's real-time data so you know what items are on hold as of the time you're clicking on the report (I think - if not it's accurate as of when your cron ran - someone can correct me here).
What you want to do is go out to the shelves and find the books in question. Bring them to your circ computer and check them all in by using the check in tool. This will mark the items as waiting for the patron at the library instead of just 'on hold'. Then when the patron comes to the library they can check the item out.
Patrons can see where they are in the queue if you turn on the OPACDisplayRequestPriority system preference - if you don't turn this on - you as staff can still see where people are in the queue by clicking the holds tab on the record itself in the staff client.
Did I answer everything?
---
Nicole C. Engard Open Source Evangelist, LibLime (888) Koha ILS (564-2457) ext. 714 nce@liblime.com AIM/Y!/Skype: nengard
http://liblime.com http://blogs.liblime.com/open-sesame/
On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 10:21 AM, Cab Vinton<bibliwho@gmail.com> wrote:
A few questions about handling holds in v.3.01.00.032.
It appears that there's no way to get a list of holds to be pulled emailed automatically, i.e., staff need to run the "Holds to pull" report manually on a regular basis. Is this correct?
What should happen next? The report says "The following holds have not been filled. Please retrieve them and check them in." What does "check in" mean here? We shouldn't check the material out to the patron as s/he won't have it in hand yet.
The OPAC updates the item's status to "On hold", so that's taken care of, but patrons have no indication of how many patrons are ahead of them in the queue. Is this a new feature that others would like to see as well?
Any other changes in holds management planned for v3.2?
Thank you,
Cab Vinton, Director Sanbornton Public Library Sanbornton, NH _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Thank you, Nicole, Kyle, & Liz. I did review the manual, but all it says is that "When an item is being checked in if it is on hold for another patron, a message will appear to remind librarians." Perhaps the manual should be updated to reflect how most libraries will handle holds in practice? 1. Run Holds to pull report 2. Grab items in question & check them all in A cronjob for daily emails w/ a list of the Holds to pull would be a great idea & a time & labor-saver for librarians. Generally, patrons would not be bumped down the holds queue without a very good (& defensible) reason, so that should not be a problem. Finally, every now & again, I wonder how often various cronjobs are set to run. Since we're hosted by a third party & don't have access to that info, it would be great if this was added as a separate tab on the About Koha page (i.e., a list of cronjobs, description of what they do, & how often they're set up to run.) Thanks again! Cab Vinton, Director Sanbornton Public Library Sanbornton, NH
The manual lists crons and their recommended run times - but not what your server has it set to. http://koha.org/documentation/manual/3.0/appendices/cron-jobs --- Nicole C. Engard Open Source Evangelist, LibLime (888) Koha ILS (564-2457) ext. 714 nce@liblime.com AIM/Y!/Skype: nengard http://liblime.com http://blogs.liblime.com/open-sesame/ On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 10:53 AM, Cab Vinton<bibliwho@gmail.com> wrote:
Thank you, Nicole, Kyle, & Liz.
I did review the manual, but all it says is that "When an item is being checked in if it is on hold for another patron, a message will appear to remind librarians."
Perhaps the manual should be updated to reflect how most libraries will handle holds in practice? 1. Run Holds to pull report 2. Grab items in question & check them all in
A cronjob for daily emails w/ a list of the Holds to pull would be a great idea & a time & labor-saver for librarians.
Generally, patrons would not be bumped down the holds queue without a very good (& defensible) reason, so that should not be a problem.
Finally, every now & again, I wonder how often various cronjobs are set to run. Since we're hosted by a third party & don't have access to that info, it would be great if this was added as a separate tab on the About Koha page (i.e., a list of cronjobs, description of what they do, & how often they're set up to run.)
Thanks again!
Cab Vinton, Director Sanbornton Public Library Sanbornton, NH
On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 10:53 AM, Cab Vinton <bibliwho@gmail.com> wrote:
A cronjob for daily emails w/ a list of the Holds to pull would be a great idea & a time & labor-saver for librarians.
Not really. Checking and printing your email isn't any easier or more time saving than checking and printing the web interface you're already using. I'm sure librarians use their email all day too, but the point is to run the report as late as possible before the actual retrieval. That's what makes the web version more accurate. Retrieving books for holds that have already been filled or canceled and searching for books that have in fact already been checked out will certainly waste more time than loading a webpage. Finally, every now & again, I wonder how often various cronjobs are
set to run. Since we're hosted by a third party & don't have access to that info, it would be great if this was added as a separate tab on the About Koha page (i.e., a list of cronjobs, description of what they do, & how often they're set up to run.)
Without getting into too much technical detail, I'll just say that this actually cannot be implemented securely. The apache user does not and should not have access to system users' crontabs. In our case, for example, it wouldn't matter anyway: the cron jobs are run on a totally separate zebra server. Koha would have no way of knowing where to check for information. One fix would be the longstanding proposal to move to an internal Koha dispatcher daemon that effectively manages the various "cron-like" jobs internally and would also allow scheduled reports of any kind, but that is a serious undertaking with its own security and reliability considerations. -- Joe Atzberger LibLime - Open Source Library Solutions
Based on some testing with the LibLime demos, the "holds to pull" report appears to be a live data report. I placed a hold in the demo OPAC and it shows up on that library's "holds to pull report" - but only when I changed the report dates to include today. Another question - I placed a hold on an item that was "in transit" and it doesn't show up on the holds to pull report - which is good because it isn't on the shelf to pull. Is that how Koha is meant to work - that the holds to pull report only shows items that are available on the shelf to pull? I placed a hold on a checked out item and it didn't show up either. Our current system uses a report that lists EVERYTHING on hold so you need to then look every item up to see if it is even on the shelf to pull - which is a big waste of time. (and exists I think because of how our current system handles item statuses) -- Josh Westbrook Prescott Library Mngr/District Technology Mngr Walla Walla County Rural Library District joshw@wwrurallibrary.com http://www.wwrurallibrary.com
Another question - I placed a hold on an item that was "in transit" and it doesn't show up on the holds to pull report - which is good because it isn't on the shelf to pull. Is that how Koha is meant to work - that the holds to pull report only shows items that are available on the shelf to pull?
Yep, that's the design.
I think the holds queue is the report that shows everything that's on hold whether it's available to pull or not. --- Nicole C. Engard Open Source Evangelist, LibLime (888) Koha ILS (564-2457) ext. 714 nce@liblime.com AIM/Y!/Skype: nengard http://liblime.com http://blogs.liblime.com/open-sesame/ 2009/7/10 Joe Atzberger <ohiocore@gmail.com>:
Another question - I placed a hold on an item that was "in transit" and it doesn't show up on the holds to pull report - which is good because it isn't on the shelf to pull. Is that how Koha is meant to work - that the holds to pull report only shows items that are available on the shelf to pull?
Yep, that's the design.
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 11:26 AM, Joe Atzberger<ohiocore@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 10:53 AM, Cab Vinton <bibliwho@gmail.com> wrote:
A cronjob for daily emails w/ a list of the Holds to pull would be a great idea & a time & labor-saver for librarians.
Not really. Checking and printing your email isn't any easier or more time saving than checking and printing the web interface you're already using.
Just stumbled across a relevant Circ preference: emailLibrarianWhenHoldIsPlaced However, it does not seem to be working, see Bug 3242. Not sure if this will be fixed or simply removed from future versions ... Cab Vinton, Director Sanbornton Public Library Sanbornton, NH
Thank you for nothing the bug -- I've been trying to get mail notifications working for days now. Is this feature officially deprecated? I understand that the web interface works for most users and most workflows -- email notifications would be extremely useful for our implementation. We have several small colleges that each get a handful of hold requests a week. It would be nice to be notified outside of the website itself. On 07/16/2009 08:22 AM, Cab Vinton wrote:
On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 11:26 AM, Joe Atzberger<ohiocore@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 10:53 AM, Cab Vinton<bibliwho@gmail.com> wrote:
A cronjob for daily emails w/ a list of the Holds to pull would be a great idea& a time& labor-saver for librarians. Not really. Checking and printing your email isn't any easier or more time saving than checking and printing the web interface you're already using.
Just stumbled across a relevant Circ preference: emailLibrarianWhenHoldIsPlaced
However, it does not seem to be working, see Bug 3242.
Not sure if this will be fixed or simply removed from future versions ...
Cab Vinton, Director Sanbornton Public Library Sanbornton, NH _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
emailLibrarianWhenHoldIsPlaced has no implementation in the codebase. It's just a fantasy syspref. In the future I think it we will be less permissive about allowing the appearance of features to persist in the software with no code to back it up. -- Joe Atzberger LibLime - Open Source Library Solutions On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 10:11 AM, Justin Davis <justindavis@mail.utexas.edu>wrote:
Thank you for nothing the bug -- I've been trying to get mail notifications working for days now.
Is this feature officially deprecated?
I understand that the web interface works for most users and most workflows -- email notifications would be extremely useful for our implementation. We have several small colleges that each get a handful of hold requests a week. It would be nice to be notified outside of the website itself.
On 07/16/2009 08:22 AM, Cab Vinton wrote:
On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 11:26 AM, Joe Atzberger<ohiocore@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 10:53 AM, Cab Vinton<bibliwho@gmail.com> wrote:
A cronjob for daily emails w/ a list of the Holds to pull would be a great idea& a time& labor-saver for librarians. Not really. Checking and printing your email isn't any easier or more time saving than checking and printing the web interface you're already using.
Just stumbled across a relevant Circ preference: emailLibrarianWhenHoldIsPlaced
However, it does not seem to be working, see Bug 3242.
Not sure if this will be fixed or simply removed from future versions ...
Cab Vinton, Director Sanbornton Public Library Sanbornton, NH
It appears that there's no way to get a list of holds to be pulled emailed automatically, i.e., staff need to run the "Holds to pull" report manually on a regular basis. Is this correct?
I imagine you could set up a cronjob that periodically e-mails that report.
What should happen next? The report says "The following holds have not been filled. Please retrieve them and check them in." What does "check in" mean here? We shouldn't check the material out to the patron as s/he won't have it in hand yet.
When you run the item through the checkin screen, it will tell you that there is a request for this item and ask you to fulfill the hold with it.
The OPAC updates the item's status to "On hold", so that's taken care of, but patrons have no indication of how many patrons are ahead of them in the queue. Is this a new feature that others would like to see as well?
That certainly could be added, but I imagine patrons would get upset if they found they had been bumped down the list for some reason. Other than that non-technical issue, it would not be very difficult.
Any other changes in holds management planned for v3.2?
I haven't heard of anything. I wrote a large reserves update awhile back for dev_week that has been on the todo list for 3.x, but hasn't made it in yet. Kyle
Thank you,
Cab Vinton, Director Sanbornton Public Library Sanbornton, NH _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
participants (7)
-
Cab Vinton -
Joe Atzberger -
Josh Westbrook -
Justin Davis -
Kyle Hall -
Liz Rea -
Nicole Engard