Monday Minutes: Circulation Rules Default Hold Policies by Item Type

by Jessie Zairo on Apr 19, 2021

This is part four of a four-part series covering all things Circulation Rules in Koha. This week Jessie and Kelly cover Default holds policy by item type in Koha. These settings allow you to edit hold and return policies for a given item type, regardless of the patron’s category.

Administration Setting

Get there: More > Administration > Patrons and circulation > Circulation and fines rules.

In the default holds policy by item type hold policies you can define the following options:

• From any library: Patrons from any library may put this item on hold. (default if none is defined)
• From local hold group: Only patrons from libraries in the same item’s home library hold groups may put this book on hold.
• From home library: Only patrons from the item’s home library may put this book on hold.
• No holds allowed: No patron may put this book on hold.

You can set the following rules

1. Define where the Hold Policy is triggered
2. Control where a patron can pick up holds using the Hold Pickup Library Match menu
3. Define where the Return Policy is triggered
   1. Item returns home: The item will prompt the librarian to transfer the item to its home library.
   2. Item returns to issuing branch: The item will prompt the librarian to transfer the item back to the library where it was checked out.
   3. Item floats: The item will not be transferred from the branch it was checked in at, instead it will remain there until transferred manually or checked in at another branch.

Remember the following System Preferences

Note that if the system preference AllowHoldPolicyOverride set to ‘allow’, these policies can be overridden by your circulation staff.

These policies are applied based on the ReservesControlBranch system preference.

If the AutomaticItemReturn preference is set to automatically transfer the items home, then a prompt will not appear for Item returns home.

Other Parts in This Series

Part One: Monday Minutes: Circulation Rules

Part Two: Monday Minutes: Circulation Rules for Multi-Branch Systems

Part Three: Monday Minutes: Circulation Rules Default Values