Holds in Evergreen Hi all, I need help understanding how holds targeting works in Evergreen. I found two documents on the web about this. I've copied them to this email and inserted my questions in square brackets. Thanks for any help or clarification. Jess
http://mlc.lib.mi.us/wiki/index.php/Holds#Holds_Priority_and_Targeting Holds Priority and Targeting Holds are not necessarily filled on a first come, first served basis. Rather, they are filled through a process designed to maximize the speed and efficiency of filling holds by first targeting local resources before looking to other branches and library systems for materials. When the hold is placed, the nearest available copy (in terms of the organizational hierarchy, not the physical location) becomes the target library for that hold. [Assuming a "regular" library system with 10 branches, and assuming a title hold, and assuming all the branches have at least one copy available, which one is selected first? I understand that the first branch selected to fill the hold is the pickup branch. Questions: if the pickup branch can't find the available copy, what happens? Which of the other 9 branches is selected in what order to fill the hold?) What if the pickup branch has more than one copy available to fill the hold, can any of the copies fill the hold? Or will Evergreen select one of the copies in advance? If it does, what criteria does it use? What if that copy can't be found, will the other copies, (and they might be right on the shelf next to the copy that can't be found) be able to fill the hold?] The item will appear on that branch’s pull list to be sent to the pickup library. If that copy cannot be found, a staff person may indicate this in the staff client and a new target copy and location will be identified, [in what order? based on what criteria?] and the item will appear on that library’s pull list. Or if the target library does not act on the hold within 24 open hours, the hold will automatically retarget. [again which branch will be targeted, and why?] When an item on the pull list is found, the hold is captured and the item is sent to the pickup library. If the target library or libraries do not capture the hold within 24 open hours, then the hold goes to Opportunistic Holds Capture - that is, if a copy is checked in at any branch, that copy will be captured to fill the hold and the item sent to the pickup library. [does this mean that until this 24 hour wait period has expired then there are no "opportunistic holds captures?"] =============================================================================== http://www.open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=scratchpad:holds Targeting As a hold is placed, a hold targeter will try to find an available item to list on a library's Pull List for Hold Requests. The first place it looks is at the hold's pickup location. If no eligible items are available at that location, [and all branches in that library?] then it'll work its way up the organization hierarchy, one layer at a time (disclaimer for developers: this is a simplistic view, we're really dealing with distances between nodes in the org tree). For example, if a consortium has their hierarchy modeled such that you have Consortium (no volumes allowed) ? System (no volumes allowed) ? Branch (volumes allowed) ? Sub-Library (volumes allowed), and the pickup location is of the type Sub-Library, then if there are no available items, the targeter will look at the immediate parent organization, which will be a Branch. If the Branch has no eligible items available, then it'll consider all of its descendants, the sibling Sub-Libs to the Pickup Sub-Lib. If we still haven't found an item to target, then we'll reach up to the System. In our hypothetical example, we have the System org-type defined as not allowing volumes (and thus no items), so the targeter will not find any there, and will move on to the System's descendants (all of the branches and sub-libs underneath it). If we still haven't found an item to target, the targeter will reach to the top-level, and check all of its descendants (every location possible). http://www.gliffy.com/pubdoc/1270281/L.jpg =============================================================================== [more questions] If a branch should be targeted as a last resort for whatever reason (say it's a small branch, or it serves a special community) is there some way to specify this in Evergreen? To be clear, the books in this "special" branch can be targeted, but they should be targeted last at that organizational level.] [Is there a way to specify the order of targeting, so that branches that are geographically close lend items between themselves before calling on more remote branches to fill a hold?] [what happens when a book with a title hold is checked in to a branch? What is checked in what order by Evergreen? This is the "golden opportunity" since a staff person actually has a copy in hand, and doesn't have to go looking for it on a shelf or book truck somewhere...] [is it possible for a very popular book to be "caught or trapped" in a branch, skipping over patrons in the holds queue until all the holds with that pickup branch are handled. Meaning that patrons who placed their holds quite early are skipped over for patrons who happen to have selected the pickup branch where the book just happens to be now.] Thanks for any help, Jess
