Allow users to freeze a hold even when an available item could be used to fill that hold.
Sierra libraries cannot freeze a hold in Vega Discover (and likely other third-party catalogues) if an available item could fill that hold. Innovative has confirmed that this limitation is caused by Sierra, and that Sierra's hold-freezing behavior must be changed before Vega Discover can support this functionality.
Currently, customers cannot freeze a bib-level hold if there is an available item that could fill the request. This prevents customers from managing their holds the way they want. In many cases, they do not know an appropriate "Not Needed Before" date, but they do know that they are not ready to receive the item immediately.
Allowing holds to be frozen regardless of item availability would give customers greater control over their accounts and reduce unnecessary hold fulfillment.
This enhancement is particularly important for:
Libraries that catalog DVD seasons on separate bibliographic records, where customers may want to request an entire series but receive the seasons over time.
Libraries with heavy users who routinely place the maximum number of holds and prefer to manage when those holds become active based on their own reading or viewing schedule.
We routinely hear from Library users that this is a barrier to managing their own holds.