Salutations!

This week's Monday 'Minder is about MISSHOLD, or what to do when something is supposed to be on your Holds shelf but isn't.

First, let's make sure we're all starting from the same place: Y'all are logging into WorkFlows REPORTS every morning and looking at your Clean Holds report and removing from your Holds shelf any/all titles that appear on that report, right? Right??!!   Look, I know it seems faster just to scan your shelf/ves for things that weren't picked up--but that is doing a disservice to a bunch of patrons out there. The Clean Holds report is more than just holds that didn't get pickedup.  It also lists holds that patrons have cancelled.  The report tells you if there is another patron hold on that item. The report puts all expired or cancelled holds INTRANSIT.    Often there are other folks waiting for those titles, don't make them wait longer than necessary or wonder why it takes 5 days for their hold to arrive when the catalog shows it's on its way just because you don't want to bother looking at a report, OK? OK. Anyway, about MISSHOLD...

When you are cleaning your holds shelves, sometimes there might be a title on your report that isn't on your shelf.   Usually, this is because the patron leaves w/o checking out the hold item.  When a title on the Clean Holds report can’t be found you need to checkout the item to the MISSHOLD user. This is one of those special users we talked about in Monday 'Minder 2021.2--the kind that are used by the system to do things.  The "barcode" is MISSHOLD. The Name is MISSHOLD. When you checkout to that MISSHOLD user, it changes the current location of the item to MISSHOLD. This is so that staff can tell how/where the item went missing, and so that we can identify these items in order to run reports so that libraries can look for these items that went AWOL at some point during the holds process. 

Which leads me to the MISSHOLD report. Every library should be getting a copy of the MISSHOLD report emailed to them from BC Analytics. It looks something like this:

What you need to do is to go look on your shelves for these items. Certainly any book that you own. It would also be prudent to check your shelves for items that were checkedout at your library, just in case. Patrons sometimes try to be helpful and put things away, staff sometimes get too efficient, and both tend to be forgetful sometimes!! Really the only places these items can be are: 1) still with the patron; 2) at the owning library; 3) at the checkout library; 4) in a red box in between libraries. Treat them like any other MISSING item.  Look for them several times over several weeks. If they still can't be found, mark them WD.  For more details see: Missing Item List

So, to sum up:

1. Use your Clean Holds Report to clear your hold shelves. 
2. Set titles on report but not on hold shelf to MISSHOLD
3. Look for items on MISSHOLD report weekly
4. If you don't find them after 3 months of looking, set them WD

Tip for the day:  I couldn't think of anything Excel/Word related, so today's tip is:  Stop and smell the crabapple blossoms. It's too early for roses, but we've been having such a lovely spring and life is short.  Take time TODAY to go outside and appreciate the beauty around you!

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