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  1. Problem:

    Currently, the "Prioritize Paging Open Locations First" feature and the "Prioritize Hold Fulfillment at the Pickup Location" feature for Title Priority Paging are incompatible. When you have both turned on, pages will skip closed locations and page at an open location, but will not allow the hold to be filled because there is a copy available at the hold pickup location. However, the hold pickup location is not paged for that item since paging skipped that location, so they don't see that patrons are waiting. This causes staff confusion and also impacts how quickly a patron can receive their…

    7 votes

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  2. We use the Repeated Bills feature, where after the bill is sent day 30, we send a repeat bill (#2) on day 40 and a final repeat bill (#3) on day 50. Unfortunately, when you run the Notice job for Repeated Bills, there is no way to tell whether the repeat being sent is for day 40 (#2) or day 50 (#3) except if you scroll through all of them and do the math as it pertains to the item status date. Staff haven't been doing that regularly. Ideally, there would be a column that showed you what # of…

    4 votes

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  3. Currently the only hold parameters one can modify via the API are

    PatronHoldPut {
        pickupLocation (string, optional): the hold's pickup location code,
        freeze (boolean, optional): whether the hold should be frozen (suspended)
    }

    It would be very helpful if the Pickup By date – and while you're at it, the Hold Note – were added as modifiable parameters.  There have been many times when unscheduled branch closures or problems in sending hold pickup notices have caused us to want to extend hold Pickup By dates for items on the holdshelf.

    Having this functionality in an API endpoint would permit a…

    16 votes

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  4. When pulling Low Circulation (or High) reports (Collection Tools > Maintenance), would like to include the Series Title (if applicable) in the displayed (and exported) report. We run into titles that have low circs, but if we see it's in a series, we normally don't weed it, because the series should remain complete. Thus we are stuck using Create Lists for this type of information (either exporting the report as a review file and then exporting fields THAT way or simply starting with Create Lists from the get-go). It would be more convenient if it was included in Decision Center.

    8 votes

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  5. This idea came from a discussion at the IUG2025 Sierra Reporting Forum.

    It would be very useful to provide an endpoint to assist with gathering/generating the sorts of circulations statistics that would normally require SQL access. However, the all or nothing nature of SQL permissions is a barrier that prevents many users from being permitted to access those features. With the API on the other hand a user could be limited to simply having read access to an endpoint such as this, along with likely the bib and item endpoints so that they may craft reports without also having to…

    21 votes

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  6. The high demand hold report is a powerful tool that sums system items and system holds.

    Adding a "hold status" and "item status" pre-search limiters would vastly improve the use of this report

    Why add these limits?

    There is no Sierra product (including Decision Center) that allows users to deselect frozen holds from “total holds” count.

    This report counts "system holds" as any hold with any status (including item holds that will be filled by "in transit" item)

    This report counts "system items" as all items (including billed and missing) so there is no way to know how many items…

    20 votes

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  7. It is very easy to accidentally overwrite a review file in create lists. There should be a pop-up that asks if you want to overwrite the file so that you know you're doing it.

    13 votes

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  8. Many libraries have eliminated fines and they would like alternative ways to provide an incentive for patrons to return items. We would like the option to block patron circulation based on a Library determined number of overdue items. This rule could be added to the Patron Block table so that libraries could customize rule as necessary.

    Idea Value: This new setting would provide an incentive for Customers to return their items.

    Idea Value: We don't want to restrict the number of items a Customer can sign out, but want to restrict borrowing after a specific number of overdues.

    Idea Value:…

    26 votes

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  9. Sierra uses a particular Load Table to determine how bibliographic records are overlaid when new records loaded via Remote Search (i.e., downloaded from another library catalogue using Z39.50)

    According to Sierra's documentation the default Load Table is "m2btab.b", but Innovative can configure Sierra to use another one if desired.

    We have found that certain projects call for different Load Tables because different sets of fields should be retained, discarded, or inserted. It is possible to change to a different Load Table for remote search temporarily (or modify the current Load Table), but that would affect all cataloguers for the duration…

    7 votes

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  10. Add the ability to create a template specifically for repeated bills. This would allow us to send a different message for a reminder bill than what we sent in the original bill. This is would be similar to how we are able to create different templates for 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc Overdue Notices.

    23 votes

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  11. It would be great if the logic & momentum that introduced Send To - Rapid or Global Update in Sierra 6.3 & will soon allow the same shortcut to Delete Items could also be applied to Globally Purge Charges.

    The state of Ohio has a statute of limitations on debt collection that has us purging money owed longer than 5 years on a weekly basis. While this is bazonkers IMO, apparently it's also the law of the land, & it would make the process much more quick & convenient if we could select a file in Create List, navigate to…

    10 votes

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  12. Despite the constant threats to our funding & the fact that some seem to treat the notion of DEI as offensive, we continue to want our library to be seen as a welcoming & inclusive environment for our patrons.

    We would like to be able to extend this to how their name is represented in Sierra & on notices/when seen in the catalog. We currently have a sort of crib sheet for staff to use to insert diacritic characters into patron names as needed, but think it would be helpful if they didn't have to navigate away from Sierra when…

    15 votes

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  13. When a hold has been cleared or is defunct, the information Sierra provides integrated systems (IMMS for our example) over API is not consistent. In particular, when clear holds is run in Sierra. During clear holds, the item status either remains at ! On holdshelf or changes to another item status. When it remains as !, IMMS sees the hold is still active and does not instruct staff to clear the item from the hold shelf. Daily and weekly processes are needed to update the item records for IMMS to recognise the changes.

    Can the clear hold function in Sierra…

    8 votes

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  14. Block particular bib records from having their URLs checked by use of a suppression code

    5 votes

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  15. We repeatedly run up against our limit of saved searches in Create Lists. There are probably saved queries created long ago that no one is using/needs. I was hoping to assign staff to review the queries and put their initials in the saved search name, but when you go to Edit, you can only edit the query, not the query name (like you can a review file). Ideally it would work like the review files themselves, when you can see who last ran the list (initials, date and time). And perhaps apply the "Own" option. This would really help to…

    44 votes

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  16. Under the count use function, is it possible to add a location column? Currently, we have Title / Barcode / Count / Status. This way, when staff collects used but not checked out items and counts their usage, they can also see - at a glance - if the item belongs to a different floor/location and can separate it on the spot.

    This added information will save staff time and minimize the chance of something being misplaced.

    9 votes

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  17. Sierra supports Z39.50 but not SRU. Remote search and import/overlay of records from SRU-only sources seems to be increasingly important. We have begun to encounter potential partners who are no longer able to offer Z39.50 access because their systems only support SRU; likewise, we would like to be able to offer SRU ourselves to maximize interoperability.

    GPL-licensed software is available to add SRU support to Z39.50-capable systems such as Sierra (for example, CQL-Java, yazproxy and metaproxy):

    https://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/
    https://www.indexdata.com/resources/software/cql-java/
    https://www.indexdata.com/resources/software/yazproxy/
    https://www.indexdata.com/resources/software/metaproxy/

    4 votes

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  18. Batch check-in is a necessary component of debt write-off and system maintenance. Running this process updates the patron account circulation activity date (CIRCACTIVE) even though this is a system-generated process and not initiated by the patron.

    We use the CIRCACTIVE date when reporting on card usage, and as an indicator of when to delete inactive cards. Because the date is updated through batch check-in, we have to do a lot of clean-up work to understand actual patron usage and behavior.

    Ideally, batch check-in should not update CIRCACTIVE. It would be fine for the account UPDATED date to be updated.

    This…

    23 votes

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  19. Idea: add a limiting feature to Globally Purge Charges that allows for choosing which fines to clear by itype.

    We use itypes to delineate lending in addition to the location code. With libraries transitioning to fines-free policies and seeking to waive existing overdue fines for patrons on some items (but not all), the current function structure complicates matters, as it only allows for limiting by location code, rather than by item type. There are ways to work around it but they are cumbersome.

    5 votes

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  20. We have a non-holdable lucky day collection whose items are on the same bib as our regular, holdable copies of those titles. Sierra allows patrons to place holds on titles that are on order, but sometimes the non-holdable copies are the first to arrive -- at which point, Sierra sees that all items on the record are non-holdable, and stops allowing holds until the first holdable copies come in.

    Innovative recommended splitting nonholdable items onto a separate bib record, which seems liable to clutter up the catalog; moreover, some of these items are likely to be moved into our regular…

    33 votes

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