What causes orphan holds to appear against a patron's record, but not display in the title hold queue in Circulation or in a Pull List ?

Applies to

• WorldShare Circulation 

Answer

• This occurs when a hold is placed at an item-level on a record that is subsequently merged with another WorldCat record after the hold was placed
• When a WorldCat record is merged or duplicate records are removed, any pre-existing title-level holds will not migrate to the new OCN
• These orphaned holds do not appear in the title hold queue or Pull List and will not be fulfillable with items that are now related to the new OCN
• The reason this occurs, is that the Circulation module isn't notified when bibliographic records change except for when OCLC update item data
• Changes to one item aren't enough to assume changes at the OCN level
• The original WorldCat record where the hold was originally placed has been merged with another OCLC record causing the hold to be lost
• You can see this in some cases where a hold item appears on a patron's hold screen and a queue number is assigned, yet when you look up the item in Circulation, this hold is no longer listed
• When an orphan hold is located, the only way to correct this is to delete the hold in the Patron record and then reassign the hold for this patron to the new OCLC record now available
• If it was a Hold placed earlier than the current ones and if you have the correct Circulation roles, you can change the queue position for this patron if you wish

Below are some examples for how this may occur:

1 May 2018
Order for 1 item for OCN 1024215501
LHR created when order placed

29 November 2018
Order for 1 item for OCN 1024215501
LHR created when order placed

12 December 2018
Patron CL902J00143XYZ placed a title-level hold on OCN 1024215501

16 December 2018 
In WorldCat, OCN 1024215501 was merged into OCN 1057618069

The hold that was placed on 12 December is now lost & orphaned. 

Possible workarounds for records and holds when this issue arises:

1. Take note of the barcode of the item that is on hold in the patrons record that no longer shows as a hold against the item record.

2. Delete the hold in the patrons record BUT create a new Title level hold on that record for this patron [moving them up the queue if its an older hold].

3. Add the item barcode back into circulation to the record where you expected it to be BUT change its Status to missing and add a Staff note, too (issue - orphaned item).

4. Check and correct this record properly when you have the actual book /item at the desk.

5. The patron who lost their original hold gets a new one created.

6. If you currently do not have that barcoded item on your shelf and are unsure of its location - by marking it as missing/with a staff note, a pop-up message will be seen when it gets returned so the item details can be corrected on your system.

Page ID