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Multiple locations and reservations rules

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Discover how to manage reservations across multiple library sites.

►User Management> Locations: Circ Details: Reservations/Recalls Parameters

Reservations in a multi-location system can be configured so that for example users from one location can reserve available copies at their own location - but only items on loan from other locations.

 Caution: you should plan your reservation rules in detail before starting configuration of this feature of OLIB. Once a single rule has been applied then all other material which does not match your criteria are then excluded from reservations. This also means that once you create a reservation rule the Reservations Allowed setting in Loan Terms is ignored. You should, therefore, plan to implement this during a time when your customers are not likely to be creating reservations.

 Note: these fields replace the old Reservable Locations, Reservable Copy Cats., Reservable Copy Statuses and Reservable Loan Statuses fields. If you had entered anything in these old fields prior to OLIB version 8.1, you should spend some time configuring the new Reservable Rules fields so that they are configured to your requirements.

The Reservation Rules are set up on the Location records on the basis of inclusion – you can include items which match the various categories.

Before you set up reservation rules...

  1. Define your rules – maybe use a spreadsheet, or just define them on paper.
  2. Remember that once you have set a single rule – all other combinations are excluded – so do not change your rules during a busy operational system.
  3. Remember that the settings defined in Reservations Logic still apply.

Rules for a single location system

It would be normal for a single location system to have 3 or 4 copy categories – maybe Reference, Quick Reference, 7 day Loan and Standard Loan. It could also have a similar number of user categories – maybe Students, Higher Education Students, Staff and Library Staff (differentiated from other staff for permissions reasons).

In this system the following would be a possible set of reservation rules:

  • All categories of users can reserve 7 day loan and standard loan items
  • No categories of users can reserve Reference or Quick Reference items
  1. Set Reservable Copy Categories = 7 day loan.
  2. All other settings are blank.
  3. Click the >> button.
  4. Set Reservable Copy Categories = Standard loan.
  5. All other settings are blank.
  6. Click the >> button.
User Cat  Location Copy Cat  Copy Status Loan Status
Any   Any  7 day loan Any  Any
Any Any  Standard  Any A

Reference and Quick Reference items are automatically excluded.

Rules for multi-location / single organisation

If you have a single organisation (e.g. a College) with multiple locations and all users have the same reservations for all items in the system (regardless of the location) – then the only additional requirement is to repeat the settings shown above for a single site system for every location. If you wish to adapt the rules you can also apply Reservation Logic defaults.

Rules for multi-location / multiple organisations

If you have multiple organisations sharing a system (e.g. health service) then you will need to add rules by either user category or by location (depending on whether you have defined your users by different categories per location). So if you have 3 libraries (Library A, Library B and Library C) working together (maybe this is 3 libraries within 1 NHS Trust) then for each of those locations you need to set up these rules (once again assuming 7 day and Standard loan items can be reserved).

The same rules would be applied to Location A, Location B & Location C. These rules would exclude any users registered at any other locations from placing reservations against the stock of those 3 locations unless rules are set up against those users’ locations to allow reservation of copies owned by Location A, B or C.

The rules would look like this:

User Cat   Location  Copy Cat  Copy Status Loan Status
Any Location A 7 day loan  Any Any
Any Location A   Standard Any Any
Any Location B 7 day loan Any Any
Any Location B Standard Any Any
Any Location C 7 day loan Any Any
Any  Location C Standard Any  Any