Always be able to freeze a hold in catalogue(s)
Provide Libraries with the option to "always be able to freeze a bib or item level hold".
If circulation/OPAC rules allow a customer to place a hold, the customer should always be able to freeze it.
At this time, customers cannot freeze a bib level hold if there is an item attached to the bib that could fill the hold. Customers tell us that they want to manage their holds. They are unsure of a "Not Needed Before" date, but they know that they do not want to fill the hold immediately.
This is important for libraries that split out their DVD seasons to different bibs, or libraries that have "super users" that want to request the maximum number of holds, but manage their own reading behaviours.
Elizabeth Wright
shared this idea
The product manager will review this idea for possible inclusion in a future release.
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Sarah
commented
We would like to see that patrons can freeze and unfreeze holds at any time, regardless of copies being available to fill holds. To reiterate previous coments, many patrons and staff find it very confusing.
As a bonus, it would be great if staff could help manage patron's frozen holds, as well (both freezing and unfreezing).
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Jennifer Schmidt
commented
This causes confusion among staff and patrons. They are often under the impression the software isn't functioning properly.
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Susanna Aakko
commented
This is confusing for our customers (and staff) too so would be nice. However it should work with both title and item paging. E.g. when patron places a hold it is automatically paged if available, if patron immediately freezes it the page should be removed, when patron unfreezes the page should be created again.
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Robert Drake
commented
Patron's often freeze holds until right before a vacation. We'd love for them to still be able to do that.
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Sarah Kasprzak
commented
I would love to see patrons able to freeze ANY hold, regardless of whether there is an available copy. We are trying not to make use of the NNB date since it doesn't work correctly with our paging workflow. For staff bookclubs, we want staff to freeze their holds and unfreeze them when they are ready to receive them, rather than placing holds with NNB dates. When there are available items, this requires staff to make the copies unavailable before they can sign in to the catalogue and freeze the holds, then they have to remember to go back and set the items back to IN LIBRARY. Having the ability to freeze a hold on an available item would be helpful for both staff and patrons. Being able to set a "thaw" date would be even better!
Lastly, making the Freeze/Unfreeze function accessible when modifying Holds in the SDA as well would be very helpful!
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Jennifer Schmidt
commented
This is a point of confusion for staff and patrons alike. It would be best to allow any hold to be frozen.
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Philip McNulty
commented
This is a very important customer service ability. There is no good reason to have coded this prohibition into the system. If patrons can freeze some holds, they should be able to freeze all.
Next: allow patrons to set an unfreeze date! -
Ruth Souto
commented
Because patrons can do this with other vendors, they expect it to be available with our ILS as well. Patrons should be able to place a hold on any item whether it is available or not, and have the ability to freeze that hold in the event they realize they just want to wait a little longer for that item.
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Jonathan Gilbert
commented
Yes! Having functions that (from the patron's perspective) randomly do or don't work is frustrating for them.
It would be important to make sure frozen holds don't appear on paging lists (they're not supposed to, but currently they do).