RE: Clearing the hold shelf

["Ericsson, Paul" <PEricsson at onconcord dot com>]

Hi Jeni --

We had a horrendous experience when we cleared the hold shelf after not
clearing it for the first few months that we went online. Waiting to do
the Clear Holdshelf function was one of the few "mistakes" that I think
we made when we went online. We simply missed the importance that was
explained to us during training. Stated in theological terms, it was a
sin of omission, not a sin of commission.

We had big-time issues with hold queues being messed up after we ran it
the first time. Staff had to do all sorts of manual work to get the hold
queues back in order. And we suspected for months afterwards that we did
not manually get everything back in line, based on the number of cranky
patrons we had later. Some patrons complained they never got their
holds, and others got things twice. Finally the complaints settled down,
but it was months later. 

Once we ran it that first time, we got into the correct rhythm of
running it daily, it has been fine. For us and our workflow at the desk,
it makes best sense to run it at the end of the day.

I don't mean to scold you, but I really want to offer the suggestion
that you should involve the III folks as you work through the first
couple of days running the Clear Holdshelf process. And run
reports/create-lists before you do any clearing to try to get a list of
the remaining active holds. We ended up working with a GREAT techie at
the helpdesk, and while he could not use an automated method of getting
us back in shape, he was enormously helpful in explaining things as we
trudged along.

Best wishes with it.

Paul 

    Paul Ericsson
    Head of Adult Services / 
          Automation Coordinator 
    Concord Public Library
    45 Green St.   Concord, NH 03301
    603 230-3697    pericsson at onconcord dot com  



-----Original Message-----
From: innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org
[mailto:innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org] On Behalf Of Jeni Schomber
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 1:05 PM
To: innopac at innopacusers dot org
Subject: Clearing the hold shelf

We are going to be "clearing the hold shelf" for the first time in 6
years. We switched over to III about 6 years ago and we decided against
clearing the hold shelf everyday for various reasons. We are currently
on Release 2002, Phase 3. Is anyone aware of any major glitches we
should be on the lookout for? Any suggestions for how we can make
clearing the hold shelf run smoothly?

Jeni Schomber
409 Pleasant Street
Beloit Public Library
Beloit, WI 53511
jschomber at beloit dot lib dot wi dot us


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