Current situation or problem

Currently in OpenRS DCB, supplier-side cancellations are not detected by the DCB hub. This means that a supplier has determined that they cannot fill the request. After making this determination, the supplying library will cancel the request with the expectation that another library will be automatically selected to fill the hold. This expectation exists because this functionality is what MOBIUS currently has in their INN-Reach system. We want to mimic this behavior in OpenRS.

The proposed workflow

• If a potential supplier cancels a DCB request, the DCB hub will need to detect the cancellation and then search for another requestable item in the DCB hub. Detecting cancellation in each platform as follows…

  • Sierra – Get a hold record by hold ID Assumed to return an “ID not found” (or similar) or a status of cancelled within the HoldStatusfield. Will need a developer to test.

  • Polaris – Depending on the desired implementation, can look at all requests of all types for the patron or filter to a specific status likecancelled. If the former, the StatusID field value for cancelled is 16.

  • FOLIO – The transaction status on the lending side will be cancelled.

• If a requestable item from any other library exists, create a new request for the best item (existing item selection algorithm). Then, modify or delete and create a new hold for the patron a the borrowing library system.

  • Patrons should not be alerted that there has been a change of suppliers.

  • When a new request is created, it would be helpful (although not a firm requirement) to maintain the old DCB transaction id(s) with the new request to allow traceability of the full history of a single DCB transaction for troubleshooting and/or data mining/analytics.

• If no remaining requestable items within the consortium exist, the DCB will cancel the patron’s hold. Each platform will handle patron cancellation notifications, not the DCB. For each platform, the following means of cancelling a patron’s hold should be used:

  • Polaris – HoldRequestCancel

  • Sierra – Delete a hold by hold ID

  • FOLIO – DCB patron hold cancellation

  • There is an assumption with each of the above three methods that it will trigger the corresponding loan rule and cancellation action (i.e. generation of a patron notification, if configured).

In scope

• This capability will be available for Sierra, Polaris, FOLIO lending libraries and can be extensible to other library systems with additional development.

• Use the item selection algorithm to search for other libraries that currently exists for DCB requests.

Out of scope

• Cancellation of the requesting cycle by DCB.

• Setting a time limit by which the request must be fulfilled or it will be cancelled automatically.

• 3-legged requests

Unknown

• Cancellation behaviour and constraints in different platforms

• Availability may be misreported for RTAC purposes in the case of re-requesting requests very recently cancelled by a previous potential supplying library.