Koha Question of the Week: What is the Difference Between HoldsQueuePrioritizeBranch and LocalHoldsPriority?

by Hebah Amin-Headley on Apr 19, 2024

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 is the Difference Between HoldsQueuePrioritizeBranch and LocalHoldsPriority?

Answer: A number of preferences dictate how Koha prioritizes items in the holds queue, so this is not an exhaustive summary of available options, focusing only on two of the options, courtesy of a question from our partners channel.

HoldsQueuePrioritizeBranch is a system preference new as of 23.05, which is intended to minimize transfers for libraries with floating collections. This setting determines whether the holds queue prioritizes matching hold pickup location with an item's home library or the item's current holding library. Libraries with floating collections would set this preference to holding library.

LocalHoldsPriority is a separate preference for libraries (often consortia) where a library or library group wants to prioritize its patrons receiving local copies during hold fulfillment before their copy goes out to fill holds at other branches. This is checked first, allowing patrons in that library's local hold group to jump ahead in the queue before other branches' patrons.

More information about how these preferences work, with examples, can be found in our 23.05 documentation.

Additional Resources

Koha 23.05: Circulation, Fines and fees, & Hold requests