Patron-placed holds is now included as an optional feature of CARL Systems PAC software. Patron placed holds allows users to place their own title level holds for desired materials from any PAC terminal on their local library system without staff assistance. In order to place a title-level hold from PAC, a user must be currently registered ip the institution's user file. If any condition is encountere' during the placing of a hold in PAC that prevents the request from being filled, the user is informed and directed to the circulation desk for resolution. The patron is provided an option to set an expiration, or not needed after, date for the hold request. Once an outstanding hold passes its expiration date, it is removed from the hold queue.
If an institution is part of a consortium with global access to holdings across the system, available copies of titles from other libraries can be used to fill patron-placed holds.
Patron-Placed Holds is currently in use on the University of Maryland System.
[Contact: CARL Systems, Inc., 3801 E. Florida Avenue, Bldg. D., Suite 300, Denver, CO 80210; (303) 758-3030; Fax (303) 758-0606.]
