Holds Notifications

Hold notification overview

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.

Hold notification basics

• Hold notifications are comprised of a METHOD (phone, email, SMS) and VALUE (phone number, email address, SMS number)
• Notification preferences can be saved as defaults by staff in the User Settings section of the patron record AND by patrons from their OPAC account
• Saved notification defaults are automatically filled in to the place hold form
• Anyone placing a hold can manually enter notifications methods for that specific hold
• When a new patron is registered, the record includes system default user settings for Phone and Email notify methods, but no values
• Email notifications only use the email address in the patron record
• Phone notifications will use the Default Phone Number
• SMS notifications only use the SMS number saved in User Settings

Patron User Settings

• SMS number, carrier, and notify by must be purposefully saved as a default to autofill in the place hold form
• At a minimum, the method must be saved as a default in order for the method to be auto-checked in the place hold form

User Settings - new patron default	User Settings - custom default
User Settings - Value entered, but no Method selected

Hold slips

• Hold slips for holds processed in the web client ONLY print the hold notification methods/values applied to the hold record
  • This is a change from the desktop client, where some libraries’ hold slips included all the patron’s contact information, regardless of the hold notifications applied to the hold record

Hold Slip pop-up with no notifications	Hold Slip pop-up with notifications
Hold Slip print version with no notifications	Hold Slip print version with notifications

Verify hold notifications for a patron's holds

• To the Patron > Holds list display add the columns Notifications Phone Number, Notifications SMS Number, Notify by Email?
  • Once added and the columns saved, these columns will display for all patrons

Patrons Hold List showing notify by columns:

Update hold notifications

In the web staff client, the staff user should retrieve a patron and select the Edit tab.

If the staff user makes any changes to the any of the following fields, when the staff user clicks Save, Evergreen will check if the patron has current unfulfilled holds.

• Daytime Phone
• Evening Phone
• Other Phone
• Default Phone Number
• Default Hold Pickup Location
• any of the Holds Notices checkboxes

If unfulfilled holds are detected, the staff user will be prompted via a popup to update these holds with the new or updated contact information, or to remove contact information from the holds.

Select the desired holds to update by checking the box next to each different notification grouping and clicking Update Holds. The selected holds will be updated. If the user does not wish to update holds, click Do Not Update Holds.

The Update Holds process will also be triggered if a phone number or email address is invalidated. Once the staff user clicks Save after invalidating a phone number or email address, Evergreen will check for unfulfilled holds and prompt for removing a notification method if necessary.

As part of this work, certain form validation constraints were added to the web client Patron Editor interface. These include the following:

• If the staff user sets the Holds Notices checkbox to true for Email Notify, Evergreen will enforce entry of a patron Email Address, if Email Address is blank.
• If the staff user sets the Holds Notices checkbox to true for Phone Notify, Evergreen * will enforce entry of a Default Phone Number, if Default Phone Number is blank.
• If the staff user sets the Holds Notices checkbox to true for SMS Notify, Evergreen will enforce entry of a Default SMS/Text Number, if the Default SMS/Text Number field is blank. * Additionally, even if the Holds Notices checkbox is false, if a staff user enters a number in the Default SMS/Text Number field, Evergreen will enforce a selection from the Default SMS Carrier dropdown.