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

As 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.