PA - Erase HasHads - Scheduled Automatic HasHad Removal

We have a good number of users that like to reread the same books over and over again, and I'm sure other libraries do as well. To make service more automated and efficient for these users, I suggest a new KLAS feature where staff can schedule a user's hashads to be automatically deleted. It would be most helpful if we could set parameters, such as how frequently to delete the hashads and whether to delete hashads by certain authors or subject preferences. This way users don't have to keep calling in when they start getting fewer and fewer books to ask for a hashad reset, and staff don't have to manually reset hashads. For example, if someone just wants Louis L'Amour books, and doesn't mind reading them over and over again, we can set the user up with just an author preference for Louis L'Amour, and then set the hashads to get reset every 6 months.

This feature would also help us improve our collection management, since we'd have a better idea of what people really want. We could increase our holdings in places where people read the same books over and over, helping us improve user satisfaction and giving us a better picture of where to invest our resources.

I think this is an excellent idea.

I'm trying to think of the user interface and practical implications of this feature.

If I go through and erase has hads every 6 months, I still run the risk that the week after I erase them I send a has had that is only 2-3 weeks old. So really it seems that what we want to do is check everyday for has hads that are older than x amount of time and uncheck the use as has had flag.

Would this be mostly like done on a specific preference (the patron is happy to re-read Louis L'amour but once he's read a William Johnstone he's done), or it is more likely that you will want a single rule for all of the patron's preferences?

One way I can see to implement this is to add a field to the Preference labeled something to the effect of Re-Read or HasHad Cycle. For most preferences this is left blank, meaning that a HasHad stays for as long as nobody touches it. For patrons that want to be able to re-read titles in a preference, you specify an number of days; we add a nightly program that goes and erases HasHads for that patron and preference that are older than today minus the number of days in the cycle.

Your method of implementation sounds great. The Re-Read box for individual preferences would give us an appropriate level of flexibility and customization, and the nightly cycle would help avoid the scenario you mentioned where someone gets the same book just a week or two after the get it the first time. I like the option of being able to specify the number of days between auto removals, because again it gives us staff the flexibility we need to meet each user's needs the way they need to be met.