WorldShare Circulation release notes, January 2022

Staff experience

If a hold request requires preparation or approval, an alert will display in WorldShare Circulation when an item is checked in at the pickup branch to fulfill that hold:

In Circulation, click the link to open the Edit Existing Hold Request dialog where you will be able to see and edit the hold's item approval and preparation statuses:

• Not Required: Approval or preparation are not required. The item may be checked out or used in house.
• Requires Preparation/Approval: The held item should be prepared and/or approved by an authorized member of library staff. The hold will not display as Ready for use when in this state.
• Prepared/Approved: Approval or preparation has been provided by an authorized member of library staff. The item may be checked out or used in house.

 Note: See below for more information about the staff roles required to manage hold approval and preparation statuses.

The system will determine if approval or preparation is required by library policy when the item is initially checked in at the pickup location to fulfill the hold. After that, you may change the hold's approval and preparation statuses until the hold is picked up, in use, completed, deleted, or expired. For example, you may need to revoke an approval for a hold that was accidentally marked Approved. Or you may wish to manually select the Requires Preparation option on an ad-hoc basis for laptops that need to be charged, materials that need repair or cleaning before use, etc.

You can access the Edit Existing Hold Request dialog from the Check In screen, the patron Holds queue, or the Pickup Location report:

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A hold will remain in (and return to) Getting ready status if either approval or preparation are required. The requesting patron will not receive a hold pickup notice or see that the item is ready via My Account, self-service kiosks, etc. until any approval and/or preparation workflows are completed. To ensure that your patrons have your desired hold shelf period to retrieve the item, the system will not calculate the hold shelf period until the hold is in Ready for use status. See below for more information about the patron experience.

A warning message will also appear when attempting to check out the item to the requesting patron or move the hold to In use status:

If an item will require approval or preparation to fulfill a hold, you will see a special warning message in the Status Details column when viewing the patron Holds queue. You will also be able to quickly Prepare or Approve a hold from the Actions menu:

Pickup Location Report

The Pickup Location report will indicate if approval and/or preparation are required for holds in Getting ready status. Use the Actions menu to easily approve or prepare a hold to make it ready for pickup.

A new filter for Status Details has been added to make it easy to find all items that have arrived at the pickup branch but still require hold approval and/or preparation by library staff before the patron will be notified that the item is ready. Use this filter to verify that items ready for pickup have been updated in the system, to find recently-returned items in the after-hours book drop, etc.

Pull List

You may also wish to have different members or library or specific workflows for pulling materials that will require approval by senior staff.

A new, optional column has been added to the pull list in WorldShare Circulation to warn library staff if your current policies indicate that the item will require approval to fulfill the hold when it arrives at the pickup location:

There is also a new pull list filter for Approval Status that allows you to limit to the section of the list where approval is Not Required or that Requires Approval:

In a future release, similar features will be added to the Pull List function in the Digby mobile app.

Staff roles for managing hold preparation and approval

Las siguientes funciones son necesarias para gestionar el estado de preparación de un artículo en espera:

• Administración de la circulación
• Mostrador de Circulación
• Privacidad en el mostrador de circulación
• Estudiante trabajador
• Estudiante Trabajador Circulación

Three roles can manage a hold's item approval status:

• Administración de la circulación
• Mostrador de Circulación
• Privacidad en el mostrador de circulación

Please note that the Student Worker Restricted role is unable to manage a hold's preparation or approval status.

Patron experience

If approval or preparation is required, patrons will not receive a hold pickup notification or see that a hold is ready for pickup in My Account, self-serivce kiosks, etc.

Until the hold is ready for pickup, My Account will indicate that the item is in transit to the pickup location (see screenshot below).

To ensure that your patrons have the correct hold shelf period to retrieve the item, the system will not calculate the hold shelf period until the hold is Ready for use.

Configuración

Para exigir automáticamente la aprobación o preparación durante el cumplimiento de la retención, active las nuevas opciones Aprobación de artículos y Preparación de artículos en la sección Cumplimiento de sus Políticas de cumplimiento de retenciones. 

The system will determine if approval and/or preparation are required by checking the related Hold Fulfillment Policy when the item is initially checked in at the pickup location to fulfill the hold. The policy is also checked when displaying items on the Pull List for pending requests.

Even if your Hold Fulfillment Policies will not require approval or preparation, you may still choose to require approval or preparation on an ad-hoc basis via the Edit Existing Hold Request dialog in WorldShare Circulation. For example, you may wish to manually require preparation of laptops that need to be charged, materials in need of repair or cleaning before use, etc. See above for more details.

 Note: If your library is a member of a circulation group, please note that Hold Fulfillment Policies are controlled by the item-owning institution. Therefore, your library staff may see approval or preparation messages for non-local items that will be picked up at one of your library's branches even if you library has not enabled approval or preparation for items in your own collection.