System Wide Holds - Training Guide

This new holds system, referred to internally as System Wide Holds, is intended to improve accessibility to library materials for all residents of Newfoundland and Labrador. Once activated, borrowers will be able to place up to 20 Holds on most* items in the NLPL collection directly from the NLPL catalogue - this includes general Holds and Copy-Specific Requests. 

Some borrowers will not be comfortable using the NLPL catalogue to place holds, and this new system will make it easier for staff to place holds on behalf of these borrowers using Horizon. There will be no more email requests and waiting for responses, as library staff will now print a Request Pull List that indicates all the items within their library that have been requested as part of their daily workflow. Once pulled from the shelves, these items are checked in to Horizon and the system will indicate what to do with the item, whether it's to place on the Holds Shelf for a local borrower, or send it via Canada Post to another library in the province. If the item has been requested by another library, a Transit Slip will be completed to indicate where the item will be sent.

This new system will involve more mail-related work for some libraries, but it will also decrease the amount of time spent requesting and processing items involved in the old ILL email system. Further, borrowers will be able to place holds independently and at their convenience, outside of library open hours and staff availability.

* Items that are 'non-circulating' will not be available for System Wide Holds. Some items, such as musical instruments and board games, are simply too difficult to mail and will be excluded from System Wide Holds. A full list of excluded items can be found HERE in Printable Forms and Documents.

Request: is the initial act of placing a hold, requesting that the next available copy be held for the patron.

Hold: is activated when a requested item is ready for the patron to pick-up.

Copy-Specific Request: if a borrower is looking for a particular edition of an item and there are multiple editions contained within a single bibliographic record, then you will need to place a *Copy-Specific Request*.

Pull List: is the list of items housed within your library that have been requested for holds, including both Local and System Wide Holds.

Holds Shelf: is a discrete location where holds are kept for patron pick-up.

Hold Slip: is a form that contains the essential information related to the specific hold, including patron identity, phone number, and the expiration date of the hold; this form contains private patron information, hence the need for the Holds Shelf to be in a discrete location. The Hold Slip template can be found on the Staff Intranet and a link is also included in this Guide (see Daily Workflow Summary).

Trace: status indicating item cannot be located on shelf (see Horizon Reports and Notices)

Transit: status indicating item is being mailed back to owning library

Transit Request: status indicating item is going to fill a request

Transit Slip: is a form used to mark the destination library of an item that is to be mailed. The Transit Slip template can be found on the Staff Intranet and a link is also included in this Guide (see Daily Workflow Summary).

Inter-Library Loan (ILL): NLPL referred to a System Wide Hold as an ILL historically, though most other library systems use ILL to refer to an Out-of-Province Loan.

Out-of-Province Loan (OOP): is a loan requested by another library system.