Koha Question of the Week: What Happens to Holds on Merged Records?

by Hebah Amin-Headley on Sep 29, 2023

Each Friday, we will bring you a new Koha Question of the Week. We will select real questions that we receive and share the answers with you!

Question: What Happens to Holds on Merged Records?

Answer: Sometimes large library consortia or multi-branch systems run into a situation where a cataloger discovers duplicate records for a title. To keep things orderly, the librarian decides to merge the two records after verifying that the records are for the same material. Only now, people are interested in this title, and each record has hold(s) on it. So what happens to those holds?

The holds will reorder based on when each hold was placed, so if record A had one hold placed at the end of the month, and record B had a hold placed earlier in the month, the patron on record B will be in the first position for the next available copy, and the patron on record A moves down to position 2. This means that the holds will persist regardless of which record remains, but libraries may hear from eagle-eyed patrons keeping an eye on their position on the hold list via OPAC.

Additional Resources

Koha Question of the Week: How Do You Merge Records?