Home → Circulation in Evergreen → Holds Management → Holds and Resource Sharing
The consortium has established a resource sharing policy that requires all libraries to share all books and AV materials that they circulate to their own patrons. Libraries cannot restrict particular items (such as Battle of the Books or other special collections) for use only by their own patrons. It was agreed by the membership that a library must circulate these items freely because patrons can easily place holds on these items in the catalog to be filled by any library in the consortium. It would not be fair for one or some libraries to restrict parts of their collections only to their own patrons when all libraries have agreed to share those items in the same way. Staff can create and share book lists with permalinks to the bib record in Evergreen that can be used by patrons or posted on the library's website, if desired.
The consortium also has agreed to keep items on the holds shelf for patron pickup for 7 days. There is some leeway for special circumstances like book club holds, which are of a relatively short duration (usually no more than a month), and are being pulled together quickly by the coordinator for patrons’ convenience to immediately be checked out by the book club patrons. That is different from keeping items “On holds shelf” (or checked out to a library account) for months as a means to prevent any other library from using them via resource sharing.
If items are owned by a library system and new (less than 6 months old by active date), catalogers can put the 6-month age hold protection on those items, which prevents resource sharing. Once those items are more than 6 months old (such that 6-month age hold protection no longer applies), books and AV materials that circulate to your patrons should not be restricted from resource-sharing to patrons throughout the consortium. Circulation and reference staff can notify cataloging staff if bibliographic records need attention to correct issues. Sometimes, there are duplicate records that can be merged to create more target items to fill holds.
For an overview of the how the holds process functions with specific regard to resource sharing, you can visit this section of the Resource Sharing Knowledge Book.
Age hold protection prevents new items from filling holds requested for pickup at a library other than the owning library for a specified period of time. The protection period when applied to an item record can start with the item record create date (default) or active date. NC Cardinal libraries primarily use a 6-month age hold protection period on newly published and newly purchased (older) items that limits holds to the owning library system based on the item’s active date, the date the item first has a status of Available in Evergreen. The active date will display in the staff client OPAC view and in the Item Status details.
If a cataloger applies the age hold protection label when the item record is created, the protection lasts for 6 months after the active date (first checkin to make the item Available to patrons). When the item is more than 6 months past the Active Date, it is available to fill holds for the entire consortium. An automatic process that runs daily removes the age hold protection label from the item once the 6-month age hold protection has expired. Age hold protection only applies to individual item records and cannot be configured in hold policies.
Library customers hear or read about upcoming titles from their favorite authors and want to put the titles on hold. Libraries who do not use Acquisitions or have not previously entered on-order items may be using a paper tracking system to identify patrons who wish to place these popular items on hold, to be hand entered once the library receives the item. It would save circulation staff time to be able to place the hold immediately.
Patrons can place holds on on-order bibliographic records without restriction, since age hold protection only takes effect once a new item has an active date (once it is checked in with an Available/Reshelving status, when it will be targeted to fill holds). Staff and patrons may not be aware that they should search all of NC Cardinal to place holds whether or not the patron’s preferred pickup library has an on-order item. So, if a patron places a hold on a bib record for a new item, but the patron’s library system never purchased a copy, the hold will not be filled until items become available from other library systems after 6-month age hold protection has expired. Staff should educate patrons about the 6-month age hold protection function, so that patrons are aware of the potential wait time.