Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Items Lost While In Transit for a Hold?

Go Live 2We discovered that when a book is INTRANSIT to a location because of a hold, the customer's hold is attached to that single item. Therefore, if that item is lost along they way, then the customer is bypassed by other people in line when other copies become available. Until we identify the fact that this item has not made it to the pick-up location, then the customer is in HOLD LINGOOOOOoooooo!!! Marking the item missing will allow the customer to get the next available copy. For more information on this scenario, see What To Do When An Item is Lost While In Transit for a Hold.

Customer Confusion About Holds on 7-Day BOOK-APOPs with Copies Already Turned into 21-Day BOOKs

Go Live 2As you know, customers cannot place holds on BOOK-APOP or DVD-NEW items (we check them out to the agency hold account and set them aside until the end of the business day). However, agencies have some leeway as far as turning some BOOK-APOP copies into BOOKs. Well, as soon as one copy is turned into a BOOK, then customers can place holds on those 21-day BOOKs.

This is fine when a library staff member can explain this to a customer, but now that customers can place holds online, it could lead to some customer confusion. If a customer attempts to place a hold on a 7-day BOOK-APOP, they will receive a "rejection notice". However, if one or more copies are turned into a 21-Day BOOK, then the customer will not receive a "rejection notice" when they attempt to place that book on hold online.

They will be able to place a hold; however, that hold only applies to the books that are no longer BOOK-APOP. Yet, the customer does not know that several of the available BOOK-APOP copies cannot satisfy the hold. The customer does not know that they are waiting for one of the BOOK copies to be turned back in.

So keep that in mind if a customer calls confused as to why they are not getting notified about a hold.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

More Go Live Wiki Upgrades

Go Live 2I have added some new content to the Go Live Wiki over the past several weeks:

The Trapping Holds on the Picklist section has been expanded to include:

The instructions for the Edit Circ Notes... tool have been expanded to include specific instructions for:
I also added instructions for what to do when an item goes missing that is in transit to a pick-up location for a hold.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Practice Online Job Application

Beth at Highland passed on this useful tool. It is a practice online job application. Customers can practice before they jump on a real application.

Click here to give it a spin.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Holds Graph Places Entire Process on One Page

Go Live 2I created a Holds graphs which displays the entire hold placement process on one single page. This may be helpful for some of you.

Click here to view it. It is also linked to under the Holds section of the Go Live wiki.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Strengthen Your Skills in August

Go Live 2Now that you have a few weeks of live action, you now probably know what your strengths and weaknesses are in regards to the new ILS. So, in order to help you strengthen your weaknesses, we will be offering some trainings during the month of August.

WorkFlows Searching will be offered August 1 from 2-4pm and on August 16 from 10am-12pm. This will focus on search strategies using both the Keyword and Browse type searching.

WorkFlows Holds will be offered August 7 from 2-4pm and on August 21 from 2-4pm. This will focus on...well, holds.

Finally, EPS OPAC will be offered August 9 from 2-4pm and on August 22 from 10am-12pm. This will focus on search strategies for the online public access catalog.

Contact Cynthia to register for these trainings. Bring your specific questions to the trainings as well.