Re: Experience of Libraries allowing "On shelf" holds

["LLC Sheryl VanderWagen" <sheryl@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Alicia--
We are a large public library consortium with 80 locations (40 libraries) in 
an 8 county area.

We rely heavily on what you refer to as on shelf holds in our system.  We 
have allowed patrons to place their own holds via Web OPAC since 1998 and 
are new to III since last spring.

We went live with the patrons being allowed to place holds on either On 
Shelf or checked out items. And we are now expanding the patrons' abilities 
and allowing them to place bib level holds on titles that have items with 
other statuses as well, in transit, on holdshelf and 5 others we use on our 
system. This was a big change for us when we migrated to III (our previous 
system had no such restriction)and it was not well received by our patrons 
which is why we are making the change.  We use bib level not item level 
requesting.  We are set up for item level paging.

I can't address the workload but our libraries loaned over 172,000 items 
(July-Sept) to each other to fill holds around our Cooperative.  That's an 
average of 2150 items per location for the quarter.  Now that actually 
varies from location to location depending on size/quality of the collection 
and other factors.  It is/has been a significant workload for staff in our 
member libraries since 1998, many of our locations get 100+ paging slips per 
day on any given day.  You will experience an increase when you empower your 
patrons and they find out that they can be less dependent on staff. We have 
found that they get extremely frustrated when they get one of those messages 
like "no requestable copies, no holdable copies, etc. etc.).  And further 
they are not shy about communicating their frustration to the frontline 
staff in our libraries.  Now weighing the time it takes for staff to run 
around with a list of a 100 or more and pull them off the shelves and get 
them processed or routed vs staff time going to look for single items for 
individual patrons is something I can't speak to because we've never done 
holds that way.

Depending on size and complexity of the individual library organization, 
each of our libraries addresses running around with that list in various 
ways, although generally item paging lists are printed in the morning, 
pulled and routed by afternoon.  Some libraries run item paging lists more 
than once per day and that is their option. Our largest libraries have 
individuals whose sole responsibility is taking care of paged items and our 
smallest libraries (one or two staff) handle it between patrons every day.

We use the automatic transfer of holds feature so if one library cannot 
locate an item, the system automatically passes it on to another library.  
For some items that are single copies, or there just are no other items 
available, we encourage staff to insert a message on the patron record that 
the item is missing but the vast majority of our holds are on items where 
there are many available copies and the transfer process takes care of those.

We also have our system to set to check for an available copy at the 
designated pickup location.  If there is a copy there, the system generates 
a paging slip at that location.  So speed to the holdshelf is entirely 
dependent on staff who print the paging list, pull items and process/route 
them.  In most of our locations if there is an on shelf copy at the pickup 
location, those are on the holdshelf the same or no later than the next open 
day.

Hope that helps. 

Sheryl VanderWagen
System Librarian
Lakeland Library Cooperative
616-559-5253 x210
616-559-4329 (Fax)
sheryl@xxxxxxxxxx

---------- Original Message -----------
From: "Alicia Abramson" <aabramson@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <innopac@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 12:57:58 -0800
Subject: Experience of Libraries allowing "On shelf" holds

> Can a few III libraries that currently allow patrons to place holds 
> on items which are on the shelf  answer a few questions for me?  
> 
> Berkeley Public Library currently allows "on shelf" holds only for 
> patrons calling the library directly.  If a patron calls the 
> Information desk asking if an item is in the library, a shelver is 
> asked to check for the item on the shelf.  If it is there, it is 
> placed on the hold shelf for the patron.  In the III system only 
> allow patrons to place holds on items that are checked out.  
> 
> We are thinking of doing away with taking telephone holds and 
> allowing users to place holds on either on shelf or checked out 
> items through III. 
> 
> The questions I have are mainly related to workload:
> 
> 1.  How would you compare the workload of processing on shelf holds 
> vs. processing only holds for checked-out items?  (This may sound 
> like an obvious question, but right now, some people feel that the 
> work involved with processing telephone holds for on shelf items is 
> more than it would be if we limited to placing them only through the 
> III system.)
> 2.  What processes have you put in place to streamline the process 
> and best use the time of the staff who are retrieving the books from 
> the shelves?
> 3.  How do you notify a patron if the item can't be found?  
> 4.  How long does it generally take from the time of the request to 
> the time the item is available on the shelf?  I'm especially 
> interested in hearing from libraries with multiple branches on this 
> one (we have 5 locations).
> 
> Thanks for any responses in advance.
> 
> Alicia Abramson
> Manager, IT
> Berkeley Public Library
> aabramson@xxxxxxxxxx 
> (510) 981-6131
> 
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------- End of Original Message -------