Available Hold Notification

About

Patrons can be notified of available holds by phone, email, or text message. Notification methods can be set per hold, at the point of placing the hold, and default preferences can be set by staff in the Patron Account > User Settings, or by Patrons from their online account. Even if defaults have been saved, different options can be set when placing a hold. Holds can be placed with no notification methods selected - some patrons do this on purpose. In version 3.0 in the web client, a bug occured in which saved hold notifications/user settings were deleted. Many holds were created with no notifications.

Hold notification methods are saved to the hold record created when the hold is placed. If a patron's contact information is updated (phone number, text number, or email address) this WILL NOT update any existing hold records.

When in doubt about notification, follow up with your patrons! They may not understand their options or know how to change them.

Phone notification

If a patron selects just phone notification, the contact number will be included in the Hold Slip. Use this slip and phone number to call the patron.

Email notification

If the patron selects just email notification, only the email address will be printed on the hold slip. Email notices are system generated between 30 and 60 minutes after the hold is made available, staff do not need to take further action. If a patron has multiple holds become available on the same day, each hold will trigger it's own hold notice email.

Example email notice

SMS / text notification

Example text notice

No Notification

If a patron does not select any hold notification, no notification data will display on the hold slip.

View Hold Notifications for Current Ready for Pickup Holds

1. From the Circulation Menu, select Holds Shelf
2. Using the Column Picker, add the fields Notifications Phone Number, Notifications SMS Number, and Notify by Email?
3. If the hold record includes notification data, it will display in the list
   • Notify by Email will be Yes is selected

These columns can also be added to the patron's hold list.

Update Notifications on Existing Hold Records

Evergreen/WebClientPatronHolds#Notification_settings

Set Hold Notification Preferences (Staff)

Set Hold Notification Preferences (Patrons)