Reservations

Control of reservations is defined using rules. You can define reservation periods, what kinds of items that can be reserved, what patron categories that can make reservations and more.

The reservation logic

Quria’s reservation logic is based on a dynamic calculation of which item that will be trapped for a patron. The great benefit of this is that the reservation queue is not static, but instead, it can change and adapt automatically to the fluctuation of the stock or changes in the rules for reservations. If an item is added or moved from one branch to another, the queue is automatically shortened. If a branch suddenly needs to close temporarily, it is easy to remove it from the reservation cooperation and the items of this branch will no longer be considered available for reservation.

The moment that the reservation is placed, Quria does not know which of all the items that will be trapped for this specific patron. Since rule settings and the number of items can change during the time between the creation of the reservation and when an item becomes available, the rules for reservation cooperation are checked when an item is returned.

This dynamic queue fits very well into a reality where most of the reservations are handled by the patrons themselves. When patrons make reservations in Arena, they do not have to worry about which item to reserve - they just need to choose a pick-up branch and then Quria handles the rest, based on the rules.

This solution has many benefits, but also some limitations, for example:

It is not possible to set different fees for reservations based on the ownership of the items or the availability status (on shelf or on loan).
It is difficult to maintain high performance in the check-out function if too many things need to be checked for every item that is checked out. Because of this, when checking the length of the queue, Quria can currently not consider reservation cooperation when calculating the loan/renewal period for items with reservations. Every reservation in the queue would need to be checked to see if this specific item would be relevant for trapping, and it is further complicated by the fact that the reservation cooperation can consist of many levels. This means that all reservations within an account are counted when the loan/renewal period is calculated.

Working with reservations

You can find details about a reservation, such as when it is valid and where it was made.

Scan the patron’s library card or search for the patron.
The patron details window opens.
Click Reservations and find the reservation.
Click the expand icon to find details about the reservation.

Click the title to open the work with all its details.

Finding reservations for a title

Search the collection and open the details page for the title.
Click the manifestation row.
Click Reservations.
All present reservations are listed. The next person in turn is on the top of the list.

Handling many reservations at the same time

On the Collections page, under Reservations, you can easily search for reservations and modify or cancel several reservations using bulk handling operations. You can also export data for selected reservations to a CSV file, to share with others or work with the data further on your own.

Handling of reserved titles that have been deleted

If the last item of a reserved manifestation is deleted, either using the bulk items functionality, via the context menu for the item or from Scan items, a message is automatically sent to the notification contact defined for reservations. You define the message type Last item deleted under Circulation and notifications/Message texts on the Configuration page.

See also: Notification contacts and Message texts