[ipac] Disappearing Holds

[Sona J Dombourian]

This problem has been happening for over a year now.  Probably longer.  It
happened before our upgrade to Dynix (Classic) 191 (which was last August)
and has happened since 191.  For various reasons, we are on an older version
of iPac (HIP) 2.03.01.

We have never been able to figure out what happens.  Patrons have items on
hold and then the next time they check, all their holds disappear.  Usually
it seems to be patrons who have lots of holds (up to the limit of 50), but
it has also happened to me (and I generally have 10 items in my holds list).
Of course, unlike our patrons,  I can never remember what I had on request :
(

There is no record of items being cancelled, no record of the hold ever
being placed, nothing in history or PURF - and, short of restoring / rolling
back the state of Dynix, I don't think there is any way to tell.  Accidently
cancelling holds or cancelling an order via ACQ puts something in PURF.

It happened on July 3rd with a patron who had over 40 items on his list.
Today I heard from staff that 2 other patrons (who also have lots of holds)
called wondering why all their holds disappeared.

We cannot replicate.  We logged with Dynix in July 2006 and they closed the
log as 'resolved' even though they couldn't replicate or see any trace of
such a thing.

Over to you guys - anyone else had this happen or venture why this might
happen?

-Sona.

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Sona J Dombourian
Director
Lafayette Public Library
sdombour at state.lib.la.us
301 W. Congress St.
Lafayette, LA  70501

tel: (337)261-5781
fax: (337)261-5782
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