Oops, hit send too fast. The reason I suggest using the check-in
modifier for retargeting holds is that it bypasses the previous check
time I mention and resets holds associated with the material so that the
check occurs immediately, often resulting in a hold being triggered.
This does have the added effect of slowing down the check-in event
(since you take more time to process all the holds, etc.) but one would
only be using the option during the cataloging of brand new items.
-- Ben
On 08/08/2012 07:36 AM, Ben Shum wrote:
Hi Anne,
Which version of Evergreen are you using? In more recent versions
(since 2.1.0 and upwards, I think), it's possible to use a special
"check-in modifier" (lower right corner of the check-in screen) to
enable the re-targeting of holds upon check-in of items. This special
modifier is used when handling brand new material that gets added to
an Evergreen system.
Presently, holds are only targeted once every 24 hours based on the
time that the hold was initially placed first. There's a field on the
hold table called "prev_check_time" (previous check time) that tells
the targeter to skip said hold until it passes that point. So
depending on when the patron or staff created the hold, and then based
on the regularity of your hold targeter script, the availability of
materials that can fulfill a hold will vary greatly. In our
consortium, we run our hold targeter every 15 minutes, but because of
the 24 hour wait time built into each hold, it still doesn't match
brand new items to some existing holds till the following day. For
example, a hold could be created at 1 pm on Monday, a new item created
to fill that hold on 2 pm on Monday, but that hold won't target that
new item till 1 pm on Tuesday after the previous check time elapses
and the hold targeter actually does another check.
Another possibility is that whichever copy status that is being used
when processing books ordered and scanned in your first mentioned
approach is one that does not allow holds to be placed/processed on
the material. You may want to double check that the copy status
options are all in order on your system as well and that holds are
allowed on the statuses you expect.
Hope this helps somewhat, please feel free to ask more questions.
Holds can be a little perplexing...
-- Ben
On 08/08/2012 07:05 AM, Anne Murray wrote:
Can anyone help with this as we can't find the problem. If we order
more copies of a very popular book, when they are scanned through
check in, the holds aren't triggered. The holds targetter is running
ok. Also, if we buy a book from Amazon (say) and catalogue it
ourselves, the hold goes on ok, but again when it reaches the library
the hold isn't picked up and the status goes to 'reshelving'.
Anne Murray
Service Support Officer
East Dunbartonshire Libraries
Kirkintilloch
Scotland
--
Benjamin Shum
Open Source Software Coordinator
Bibliomation, Inc.
32 Crest Road
Middlebury, CT 06762
203-577-4070, ext. 113
