Have you ever had a call from a patron that goes something like this?

“I was so excited! I found that new book I heard about on the morning news show in the online catalog! You libraries really keep up with things! I put a hold on it right away. Then I checked my account, and I don’t get it — why am number zero in the queue??”

You can be almost certain that the title is indeed a new one that’s on order. Because there’s a title record but there aren’t any items attached, the hold’s place in the queue is zero. In the public catalog, the item status is On Order. Staff can look up one of these items in Workflows through a title search, where it’ll have a call number in the format XX(1769419.1). The holds tab will show the approximate place in the queue, but of course holds are filled first if the pickup location matches the item’s owning library. If the pickup library and the item library aren’t the same, the patron’s hold will be filled after any holds placed by patrons of the owning library.

When an item is received and linked, the hold will attach to the item. The patron will be able to see her place in queue in her account. It won’t be long before she comes in to the library, ready to read that new, exciting book.