The Symphony software is set up to share copies on a "my users get my copy first" basis. Because of the complexity of holds based on this in a consortia, it is NOT possible to show where a person is in the hold queue.
Each library needs to purchase its own copy or copies of bestsellers to meet local needs. A library might purchase additional copies of new materials. These additional copies are allowed to be set to a No Hold Item Type, and will not fill any holds, whether at the owning library or outside it.
The Symphony software is also configured to prevent holds on some item locations, such as REFERENCE or STORAGE.
The basic philosophy within Winnefox is that libraries will share as much of their material as possible.
OnShelf Hold List
The Onshelf Hold Items report runs Monday through Friday. That report, or the updated list created by the wizard in WorkFlows, is the list of items that are needed to fill holds. That report should be handled each day by the library. After the items are pulled from the shelves, the library needs to use the “Check Item Status” wizard to see what should be done with the items. If an item can't be found after several days, it should be set to missing.
Clean Holds List
A Clean-Holds report also runs Monday through Friday. It creates a list of item on the library's hold shelf that have not been picked up by the user or that have been cancelled by the user. These items need to be pulled from the hold shelf. The library needs to check item status of the pulled items to see what needs to be done. Some of the items will already be INTRANSIT. Any item on the list that is not INTRANSIT should be scanned in check item status.
SHORTLOAN Items
Titles that are in high demand, with more than five holds than copies across the system, are to be set as Item Type SHORTLOAN. All items with the Item Type of SHORTLOAN will circulate for two weeks, regardless which library they are checked out at. These are often new bestsellers, but might include older books which are newly popular.
Each Monday morning, libraries receive an Excel document with two tabs: "Make Shortloan" and "Remove Shortloan." These tabs are lists of their items which need to be edited. Libraries should go through these lists weekly and make the appropriate changes: Items on the "Make Shortloan" tab should be changed from their current Item Type to SHORTLOAN. Items on the "Remove Shortloan" tab should be changed from SHORTLOAN to their normal Item Type. Items can be edited even when they are checked out; the SHORTLOAN circulation period will go into effect the next time the item is checked out.