Welcome to the Key Notes blog, where we will be bringing you weekly posts on conference planning, happenings at Keystone, or how better to put KLAS to work for you!
We’re kicking things off with a discussion on putting patrons “On Hold.” KLAS offers a number of different ways to halt or pause service to a patron, including:
- Main Status types
- Media Status types
- Blocks
Each of these options works a little differently, offers different benefits, and may work better for some situations than for others. Bear in mind—NONE of these will affect a patron’s BARD account, as there is currently no direct communication between KLAS and the NLS BARD servers.
Are there situations where you like to use one method over another?
How do you like to document the reasons or end dates for patron holds?
Do you have questions or need some help navigating the best workflow for a particular situation?
Review your options below, then visit the Patron Holds forum thread and join the discussion!
Options for putting patrons "On Hold"
Each library or system will develop their own standard procedures. This information is only intended to help you understand your options and to suggest possibilities.
1. Patron Main Status:
Change this status to ensure that nothing goes out to a patron until / unless the status is changed back to ACTIVE, and to facilitate the process of removing inactive records after a reasonable period.
- The lifecycle of a patron record should generally be:
ACTIVE > SUSPENDED > WITHDRAWN > DELETED - INACTIVE should not be used for the Patron Main Status.
- Once a patron is marked WITHDRAWN, all materials checked out to the patron are marked Lost (including equipment).
2. Patron Profile and Media Status:
Change one or more Patron Media Status to stop materials in that medium from going out to the patron, and / or update the Cir Status and Dir Status to stop magazines in that medium.
- Set the desired media to INACTIVE to block materials from being sent. The status can be set back to ACTIVE at any time to resume service.
- Dir Status is the status for Direct Magazines—magazines circulated by NLS directly to patrons. Update the subscriptions for these magazines from the Subscriptions tab so information can be sent through PIMMS.
- Cir Status is the status for Circulating Magazines. Update the status here to block magazines circulated by your library.
- Other profile adjustments can be made to the NSCutoff, Next Serve Date, or ServeCode, depending on the exact results you want.
3. Blocks:
Create a block to stop both books and circulating magazines from being sent from your library. Set an expiration date to make the block temporary without needing to go back and manually reverse changes to a patron’s account.
- Is not communicated to NLS and does not affect Direct Magazines.
- Some libraries allow new types of blocks to be created directly in the tab, or you can create a standard “Hold” block type to be used as-needed.
Read this “QuickTip” Tutorial for more information and instructions for each option:
Join the discussion in the Patron Holds forum thread!
