How to reserve an item?
Koha allows patrons to put things on hold. A 'Hold' is a way to reserve an item. Depending on your circulation and fine rules and hold preference settings patrons will be able to place items on hold for pickup at the library at a later date/time.
There are several ways to place holds from the staff client. The most obvious is using the 'Place Hold' button at the top of any bibliographic record.
You can also click the smaller 'Place Hold' link found at the top of your catalog search results, or the 'Holds' link found below each result.
You will be asked to search for a patron by barcode or any part of their name to start the hold process.
If you'd like to search for the patron first and then the bib record for the hold, you can open the patron record and click on the 'Search to Hold' button at the top of the patron record.
After clicking the button you will be brought to the catalog search page where you can find the book(s) you want to place a hold on. Under each title on the results you'll see an option to 'Hold for Patron Name.'
If you want to place a hold on multiple items, simply check the boxes to the left of them and click the arrow to the right of the 'Place Hold' button.
Depending on how many items you choose to place a hold on at once you will see a different place hold form. If you are placing a hold on one bibliographic record you will see a list of all of the items you can place a hold on.
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Enter any notes that might apply to this hold
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Choose the library where the patron will pick up the item
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If you have the AllowHoldItemTypeSelection preference set to 'Allow' and the record had more than one item type attached you will see an option to choose to limit the hold to a specific item type
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If the patron wants the hold to start on a date other than today, enter that in the 'Hold starts on date' field
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This option will only appear if the AllowHoldDateInFuture system preference is set to 'Allow'
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If the patron has specified that they don't want the item after a certain date, or if you have limits on hold lengths, you can enter an expiration date for the hold in the 'Hold expires on date'
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To have expired holds canceled automatically you will need to have the Expired Holds cron job set to run on a regular basis.
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Next choose if you want to place a hold on the next available item or a specific item by clicking the radio button next to an individual item.
If you're placing a hold on multiple items you will be presented with the next available option for all titles. If no items are available for hold it will say so on the confirmation screen.
Once your hold is placed, if you'd like to have Koha forget that you used the 'Search to Hold' function, you can choose to have Koha 'forget' the patron's name by clicking the arrow to the right of the 'Place Hold' button on the search results and choosing the 'Forget' option.
