Improve clear hold functions for integrated systems
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 be developed for consistency of information provided to integrated systems? e.g. Change all the the item statuses when clear holds is run, or provide another in the API that is robust for notifying integrated systems of the update.
Aaron Paap
shared this idea
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Mats Nordstrom
commented
We at the Libraries of Malmö would like to suggest that Innovative and Lyngsoe develop an interaction between Sierra and IMMS to help clear hold shelves.
The issue: Currently, we have hold shelves at our libraries that are numbered between, for example 100 and 120. Each day we clear the holds that have expired the previous day. When we first implemented IMMS, we noted the shelf to clear down on a paper almanac and then wrote them off a week later.
However, we have since then coded a very simple application to keep track of this for us. The application takes the holds that have expired the previous seven days (this is due to varying opening hours at our libraries), grabs the related barcodes from Sierra, and sends them to IMMS to retrieve the hold shelf. It then reports to the user, for example, “clear the shelves 101 and 103”.
The application can also report the shelves used on a specific date, to help staff keep track of which shelf to use for new holds.
Due to its simplicity, the app is prone to human error and not entirely reliable. For example, clearing the holds in Sierra will make it impossible to retrieve the shelves from IMMS, because the application uses the status ! in the item, which is cleared when the clear expired holds and hold shelves function is used. We feel that a better solution would be for Innovative and Lyngsoe to develop this functionality within the Sierra Library Management System.