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Self service hold shelves allow patrons to pick up their held items independently without interaction with library staff. Self service hold shelves must be publicly accessible and are usually near library staff stations in case the patron needs assistance locating their items. Self service hold slips are inserted in or attached to items showing the requesting patron. To protect patron privacy, these hold slips are coded to avoid personally-identifying information while still allowing each patron to identify their own items.
Horizon now offers the ability to create self service hold slips thus making it possible for libraries to provide self service hold shelves. The privacy coding masks digits from the patron’s barcode and includes a limited number of characters from the patron’s name (see the example to the left; the hold slip shows only the first three letters of the patron last name along with the last four digits of their barcode).
To implement self service hold slips at your library, contact the Help Desk. We’ll have some questions and can provide any guidance you might need to set up your self service hold shelf. There’s more to it than just creating your self-service hold slips; you will need to consider the location of your self-service hold shelf, how to promote self-service holds, and how to provide assistance to patrons who need it the first time they pick up their items. Please note that the decision to implement a self service hold shelf is an all-or-nothing decision--it is not possible to have self-service hold slips for some patrons and not for others (at a single library). Self service holds is a strategic decision that should be considered carefully in conjunction with your library’s vision of customer service.
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