Hold request button disappears from local owed copies

Hi all,

We've had a few questions come in from staff about the "Hold Request" button not appearing on selected titles when viewing the records in the WebPAC. It appears there is new behavior that came with release 2009B that wasn't listed in with the enhancement features.

For example, if you are at HPL Central and do a title search for "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" in the WebPAC, the first few records do not show the Hold Request button. The reason?

The "Hold Request" button does not appear in a title if there are local copies available for checkout; locally available copies also include reference copies. "Local" in this context means the library that you are physically in when you perform the search.

This behavior is really a good thing and it results in a less frustrating experience for the customer! Many libraries have been asking for this feature for quite a while.

Prior to this enhancement, the customer who tried to place a hold while in a branch that had a local copy, would go through the hold process. After they clicked on the "Hold Request" button and entered their customer information, they would be denied the request because the "local copy" was available.

We confirmed this is working as intended by doing a few searches on a "remote" machine. The hold request button does display for all holdable titles when you are searching from outside one of HPL's libraries.

If you have any questions about this behavior, please contact me.

Thanks.

Vi Johnson