CCS News
JANUARY 30, 2009
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
RESOLVED ! Blanket Holds – Slowdowns and freezes caused by blanket holds have been addressed by Sirsi and the fix is on the production server as of Thursday morning Jan 29. As of this writing we have tested the blanket holds and they work exactly as before, except they do not slow the system anymore. The function of the blanket hold remains the same; however, a behind the scenes index was added to aid the system in processing the blanket holds. Please report any blanket hold anomalies you encounter. (See “Did You Know?” below!)
Slowdowns – although we have eliminated one cause of the slowdowns, we continue to look at other causes that cannot be attributed to blanket holds. Therefore, please continue to let us know when you experience problems. The only way we can tell if a problem is local or more widespread is when we hear feedback from at least a few libraries – even if it to say that things are okay! We are working with Sirsi to see if system tuning can help some situations. We have also worked with a few of the libraries on locally occurring network problems.
Test server – as of this writing, we are starting the process to test our backup tapes on the test server. Then we will proceed to load 3.2.1 on the test server for library-wide testing. The entire process takes a few days and we will keep you posted on progress.
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that users have asked whether the Place Blanket Hold wizard allows you to place multiple holds on the same title (for use by book clubs or discussion groups)? The name of the wizard seems to imply that it would work for this purpose, but the name is misleading. Blanket Holds do allow for placing more than one hold on an item, but it’s designed for use in situations where a single patron wants only one copy of a title, wants the item quickly, and will accept that item in any available format. For example, patrons will usually get an item quicker if they’ll accept the item in a hard cover edition, illustrated edition, large type, or paperback copy of the book. Using the Place Blanket Hold wizard, it is possible to place holds against more than one copy of an item in different formats. The first title that satisfies the hold, regardless of the format, will be sent and the remaining holds against that title should automatically be canceled for the other copies/formats that were selected when the Blanket Hold was placed. There had been a temporary moratorium at CCS on using this function during peak hours because it was causing response time problems throughout the system. But Sirsi developed a patch for this and it was installed on Thursday. It seems to have resolved the slowdown issue, so libraries may resume using the Place Blanket Holds wizard at any time of the day.
Unfortunately, placing holds on multiple copies of the same item for a discussion group still works the same in Java as it did with the C client. (1) From the initial Place Hold screen (NOT the Place Blanket Hold screen) use the Item Search helper button to find the desired item. (2) Place a hold on the title using the in-house patron ID for your discussion group. (3) When the confirmation window displays, select the “Place Another Hold for This User” option. (4) When you return to the Place Hold screen, click the Item Search helper button again to see the previous search results list and select the same title from that list for the next hold. (5) When the “Place Hold: Duplicate Hold Override” window displays, enter the override code in the "Duplicate hold override" field and click the Override & Place Hold button. (6) Repeat steps 1-5 until you’ve placed a hold on the number of items needed for your discussion group. – Ken Victorson
CCS MEETING NEXT WEEK:
Wed., 2/4, 9:30, Fremont: Catalogers
