Item resolution requirements DCB-1530 + DCB-1549

Owned by Tim Auger
Last updated: Nov 19, 2024
3 min read

Overview

Item resolution is the last in a series of steps to determine which item OpenRS will select for placing a request. Currently, items that are checked out or have item holds cannot be requested via OpenRS. The purpose of DCB-1530 and DCB-1549 is to augment the existing item resolution capabilities such that checked outs and items with holds can be considered for selection. The business goal of these capabilities is to increase the volume of OpenRS borrowing and to increase the speed of item delivery to patrons. These two issues are contractual obligations to MOBIUS but are likely to be used by GALILEO and other new OpenRS consortium.

Future item resolution development for GALILEO (DCB-1540 and DCB-1541) have the business goal of better balancing the distribution of item requests for suppliers. These capabilities are outside the scope of this development.

Functionality

Allow requests on items with holds

With the exception of Polaris libraries, item hold counts are currently returned from the member library systems via RTAC to DCB. When DCB is returned an item with a hold count of 1 or greater, that item is removed from the list of potentially selectable items while DCB continues to evaluate the selectability of each item. See From Contribution to Selectable for additional informations.

DCB-1530 allows for OpenRS requests to be placed on items with holds. A set of rules determines how item holds are evaluated when a group of copies are on-shelf (available), some that are checked out and some with holds. Please see the Rules section below for rule criteria and ranking.

If a library system is unable to supply an hold item count for any reason, the items from that potential supplier are ranked lower than other libraries that are able to provide a hold count.

A consortium is able to enable or disable this feature across all members of the consortium.

Allow requests on loaned items

Currently, items on loan (i.e. checked out) are not allowed to be requested via OpenRS. With DCB-1549, the ability to place a hold on loaned items will be available in OpenRS.

Each platform needs a definition of what constitutes a loaned item:

  • FOLIO items are on loan when circStatus = Checked out

  • Polaris items are on loan when circStatus= Out

  • Sierra items are on loan when itemStatus.duedate!= null (i.e., is checked out)

[will need to reconcile with existing “Available rules” From Contribution to Selectable ”]

A consortium is able to enable or disable this feature across all members of the consortium.

Compatible and independent

All request capabilities must be compatible with one another and, yet, must stand independent without reliance on any other resolution capability. So, as a consortium administrator, I can choose to allow patrons to requests items with holds and loaned items or one and not the other or, neither. This means that both features must be enabled independently of one another.

Rules

Loans and holds

The following rules are intended to support the goals for each capability. OpenRS will select the item with the highest ranked criteria.

  • On-shelf ranks above loans

  • Loans rank above holds 

  • When all items are loaned, the item due soonest is selected* 

    • Overdue items are not resolvable.

  • When all items have holds, the item with the least number of holds is selected. 

  • If a library system is unable to supply an item count of holds because the platform does not support it (e.g. Polaris), rank items from that library lower than other libraries that are able to provide hold count.

  • When all item selection criterion are equal (e.g. all items on-shelf) and geographic proximity is enabled, use geographic proximity to determine which item is selected to place the request

    • If no other selection criterion are enabled, choose an item at random.

Acceptance criteria

See Rules

Scope

  • Platforms/LMS: Polaris, FOLIO, Sierra

  • Can support platforms that do not return hold data

  • Uses existing methods to get holds from an LMS except where noted

  • Manual selection of items

Out of scope

  • bib/instances/volume holds

 

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