Best Practices Recommendation: Hold Life Setting in System Administration

Since upgrade to Voyager 6.1 some libraries have experienced a problem when Charging items from other I-Share libraries--items that are at the Circ Desk, waiting to be picked up by the requestor.

Upon the attempted Charge transaction the following message appears:

"Database Error: The patron cannot charge this item because it belongs to another cluster and the patron has not requested it."

The requestor's library must then contact the item's owning library and have the item charged by their staff. This is the only way to get the item charged to the requestor.

This happens when the Hold Life of the requested item has expired. In Version 6.1, the Hold Life setting plays an enhanced role in Universal Borrowing transactions. Prior to upgrade, CARLI made a recommendation that libraries set the Hold Life parameter in System Administration to 30 days. http://www.carli.illinois.edu/I-Share/secure/hold.html

Some libraries have done so and their items are not causing problems. Other libraries have settings that are below this recommended length of 30 days and that causes difficulties at UB Checkout.

In order for Universal Borrowing to work uniformly in I-Share libraries, CARLI suggests the following Recommendation: Set the Hold Life Parameter to 30 days

This setting is found in the Circulation Happening Location screen in:
System Administration/Circulation/Policy Definitions/Locations