Handling Holds at a Public Library

[Roger Dutcher <rdutcher@xxxxxxxxxx>]

        We are a new III library, a medium size stand alone
public library.  We will be live to the public for one month
this week.
        We would be interested in knowing how other public
libraries handle the "clear the holdshelf" in Holds
Management.  So far ours are giving a lot of headaches.
        How often do you run it?
        Does one person run it all the time or do you train
everyone in your dept.?
        III says the the days a book will stay on the hold
shelf is supposed to be days the library is open (it is not
supposed to count days in the calendar that you are closed),
but our system gives us a straight eight days, including
days we are closed, or, in the case of the holidays, it may
be three or four days from when a hold is checked in until
the notice is printed.
        How do you handle that a book has its x number of
days (in our case 8 days) from the moment it is checked in
(or, in this case transferred) and not being able to run the
hold notices each day?  For example, you check in a book on
a Thursday night, it generates a hold (and shows, to the
customer if they should look, as "ready for pickup") but we
are closed on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the holidays.
A notice isn't generated until Monday.  If it takes two days
(as it often does) to get the mail, the person now has a
notice that says "you have eight days from the above date"
(Mondays date), BUT, the 8 days for the system is sooner
than that.  We have ended up running the "report" and having
it transfer to another customers hold, and having the
"original" customer come in with the hold notice and expect
the book.  In the meantime the next customer has been sent a
notice.  If we go ahead and check out to the "original"
customer, then the next customer comes in wanting the book.
        The above, as unclear as it may be, has already
occurred.  We know we can take the line off the hold notice,
or give the hold shelf extra days, but we think 8 is already
a lot when you are trying to handle all the holds on Steel
or Grisham.  In our past system we did not have this
difficulty.  Now that the holidays are over, we won't have
as big a problem with this, but it is still something we
would like to understand better.
        Some people are proposing not using this "report".
What are the effects of not running it daily?
        You can answer off the list if you like.

Thank you,
Roger