Allow staff modification of frozen holds
The current "Frozen Holds" function in WebPAC does not allow for patrons to select a date at which they want their holds to be "unfrozen". Staff have the ability to set a "Not Wanted Before" date on behalf of the patron, but there is currently have no way to modify the date of a frozen hold on behalf of a patron in the Sierra Desktop App. SDA should have the option to change that date once frozen by the patron, in the event the patron cannot unfreeze it themselves.
Staff feedback: "We've had a lot of patron confusion around freeze holds and patrons seem frustrated that we can't do anything on the staff end to freeze or unfreeze (lots of calls from folks on vacation)"
Current workaround: technically anyone can log into someone's account in the WebPAC Catalog by putting in their last name and library card number. That's probably not something we want staff to get in the habit of doing (logging in for patrons) but if the patron cannot unfreeze holds while abroad, in theory a staff member could do it for them. For obvious privacy concerns, it would be better if staff could complete this task in the SDA.
Kayla Payne
shared this idea
The product manager will review this idea for possible inclusion in a future release.
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Susanna Aakko
commented
Freezing (for patrons) and NNB (for staff) should be combined to one unified functionality so that frozen holds could be managed by patrons (WebPAC/Encore/Vega and third-party solutions using REST) AND by staff (Sierra Circulation). There are a few related ideas (and I commented them) but I think the main problem is that the function is not the same for patrons and staff. So I'd probably like first to remove NNB and replace it with just freeze/unfreeze on Sierra side too. (After that think about the additional options such as thaw date and freeze even if items available.)
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Susanna Aakko
commented
We have similar issues. I think Freezing (by patrons) and NNB (by staff) should somehow be merged so that there would be only one functionality that could be managed by patron on WebPAC/Encore/Vega and via REST solution and by library staff in Sierra.
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Sarah Kasprzak
commented
We also get requests from patrons for help in managing their frozen holds. We use PINs for patron authentication so we have no access to patron's accounts on the catalogue side and cannot do this.
Another scenario that we come up against fairly regularly is when we need to cancel and replace a hold on a patron's behalf for some reason (for example they have a hold on an item that will never come available and we want to cancel that hold and place a new BIB hold) and we have no way of freezing the new hold on the patron's behalf. Ideally, in these scenarios, we want to be able to make adjustments seamlessly without involving the patron.