What is Holds Manager and how do I use it?

Adding titles by number of holds or by holds ratio

For shared collections (also called consortiums) and standalone collections, we recommend adding titles based on holds ratio since it takes into account how many copies of a title you already own. We also recommend excluding Lucky Day copies from your holds ratio, since those copies won't fulfill holds.

Note: If you add titles based on holds ratio, expired titles (0 units owned) with holds will be excluded from your Holds Manager plan (because their holds ratio is 0). To see expired titles with holds, you can use the Current holds report or set up Metered Access Manager plans that include expired Metered Access titles.

For Advantage members, we recommend adding titles based on the number of holds (not holds ratio), since the holds ratio calculation includes both Advantage and shared collection/consortium copies, but only includes holds placed by your Advantage users. (This means that shared collection/consortium users waiting for a title aren't accounted for, so the holds ratio may seem much lower than the actual demand.)

Example holds scenario for an Advantage collection:

• There are 10 total copies of a title: your Advantage collection owns 2 and the shared collection/consortium owns 8.
• There are 40 total holds on the title: 10 from your Advantage users and 30 from shared collection/consortium users.
• For the Advantage collection, the holds ratio for this title is 1 (10 Advantage holds / 10 copies), but the ratio for the full shared collection/consortium is 4 (40 holds / 10 copies).

The criteria in this section can further narrow the titles included in your plan.

Including suspended or delivered holds

We recommend excluding both suspended and delivered holds from your Holds Manager plan.

A suspended hold is a hold that a user has postponed borrowing via:

• The "Suspend Hold" or "Deliver Later" features in Libby or on your OverDrive website
• The "Freeze hold" or "Get it later" features in Sora

A delivered hold is a hold that is ready to borrow but hasn't been retrieved yet.

Including Metered Access titles

If you choose Yes, you'll be prompted to choose your preference for cases where titles are available in multiple lending models.

Reminder: If Metered Access titles have expired and have holds, they won't be included if your Holds Manager plan fills based on holds ratio. Instead, you may want to set up Metered Access Manager plans to reorder Metered Access content.

Including Cost Per Circ (CPC) titles

If you choose Yes, your Holds Manager plan will only include CPC titles that you also have in another lending model.

Note: Non-CPC copies always circulate before CPC.

Including titles shared by Advantage members (via Advantage Plus)

Select No if you don't want to include titles in your plan that users can access via Advantage Plus.

Excluding certain publishers, audiences, or languages

To exclude specific publishers, audiences, or languages, click the item you want to exclude (or press Ctrl or Command, then click to select multiple items). Then, select the right arrow to move the item to the excluded box.

Excluding certain branches

If you're signed in with an Advantage account, the Holds Manager plan is already limited to holds placed by just your users. So, there's no need to manually exclude other library or school branches in your shared collection/consortium.

Generating carts automatically

If you'd like, you can have Holds Manager automatically generate carts on a schedule you choose.

Even if Holds Manager generates a cart automatically, you can view your plan and add titles to carts manually anytime. To do so, go to your plan and select Add all titles to cart, or check the box next to one or more titles and click Add selected titles to cart.

If you want to generate carts, make sure your plan criteria are as specific as possible. Your carts may be too large to open in Marketplace if your criteria are too broad.

How often to generate carts

We recommend generating Holds Manager carts at least once a week to stay on top of demand.

Setting spending limits

We recommend setting monthly and per-cart spending limits if your Holds Manager plan automatically purchases the carts it creates. If carts aren't purchased automatically, you'll be able to review each cart and adjust the number of copies or remove titles as needed to control spending.

When you set a spending limit, Holds Manager will prioritize purchasing titles with the most holds or highest holds ratio (depending on how your plan fills holds).

If your Holds Manager plan runs several times per month, setting a per-cart limit ensures your budget is used evenly throughout the month.

For example: You set a $400 monthly spending limit and schedule your Holds Manager plan to run weekly. If you want to make sure that the whole $400 isn't spent on the first cart, you might set a cart spending limit of $100.

Limiting the total number of copies of titles in your collection

If you don't set a copy limit, Holds Manager will add as many copies of the most-held title as it needs to reduce its holds (or holds ratio) below the number you set in your criteria. It will continue to move down the list of titles until it reaches your spending limit (if you have one).

Using an internal purchase order ID

This field is optional and for your records only. The internal purchase order ID appears on invoices for carts or orders created by your Holds Manager plan.

Saving carts for review vs. submitting orders automatically

If you have Holds Manager create carts for your review, they will appear as blue carts on your Carts page. From there, you can adjust the titles and copies, then purchase when you're ready.

If you have Holds Manager submit orders automatically, you'll see information for these orders in your invoices (under the Billing tab) and in your purchase order history.