Placing Holds on Available Items

Did you know that you can place a hold on a book or a movie, even if the catalog says it is checked in?  About a year ago, we introduced the ability to place holds on available items and it has been a service that has grown steadily in use.  Here's how it works:

Searching the catalog from home, you find just the item you are looking for and see that it is checked in.  You simply click on "Request it" (in Catalog Pro) or "Place a Hold" (in Catalog Classic) and supply your library card number and password when prompted.  You may have up to eight holds on your account at a time.

We run a report every few hours that we are open that gives us a list of the holds placed on available items; a staff member then takes that list and heads out to the stacks to retrieve those materials.  They are checked in to "trap the hold"--a step which assigns the item you requested to your account.  We then send you a Hold Pickup Notice to verify that the item was found and is ready for you to pick up from the public Hold Shelves on the first floor.  You have six days in which to pick up your hold.

We have heard from happy library patrons that this service saves time:  they can do do their browsing  and selections from home, and then make a quick trip into the Library to pick up the materials that are waiting for them.