Holds

A hold in Lyra is a patron’s request for the next available copy of an item. A hold moves through a short lifecycle:

• In the queue — the patron is waiting for a copy:
  • Unassignable. No copy is a candidate yet — every copy is either checked out ahead of this patron or reference only.
  • Assignable. A copy has come available, but staff haven’t pulled it yet. These holds appear in the screen: To Pull page.
• Ready to pickup. A copy is assigned to this hold and is waiting for the patron.
• Done — the hold has ended, one of three ways:
  • Fulfilled. The patron picked up the copy and checked it out, and the hold becomes a loan.
  • Canceled. The patron, or staff on their behalf, canceled it.
  • Expired. The hold was ready but the patron didn’t collect it within the pickup window. That window is counted in school days, so weekends and holidays don’t eat into the patron’s pickup time.

When a checkout fills a hold, the hold goes away and the loan is what’s left. For a canceled or expired hold, if another patron is waiting in the queue, Lyra reassigns the copy to the next hold automatically: because the copy is likely already set aside, that hold becomes ready to pickup right away and the next patron is notified — no re-shelving, no second trip to the stacks. Only when no one is left waiting does the copy route to screen: To Re-shelve — back in circulation immediately, but still on the hold shelf until somebody walks it to its location.

The reverse is also true: a fresh hold can pull a copy off screen: To Re-shelve. A patron whose hold was canceled or expired can place a new hold on the same item right away — and if that copy is still set aside (not yet re-shelved), the new hold claims it and is ready to pickup at once. Otherwise, the new hold joins the back of the queue as usual.

The workflow

Every hold is on screen: All Holds under navigation path: Holds, whatever state it is in. The states that need staff attention also have a page of their own, each with a single clear action:

• Assignable holds appear on screen: To Pull — a candidate copy is on the shelf waiting to be fetched.
• Ready to pickup holds are the Ready stage of screen: All Holds — the copy is set aside for pickup, waiting for the patron. There is nothing to do until they arrive, so this is a filter rather than a page.
• A copy from a canceled or expired hold with no one left in the queue appears on screen: To Re-shelve — it is already back in circulation (available, loanable, and on the shelf as far as the OPAC is concerned) and just needs physically returning to its location, which is what the status: Re-shelve label on its copy row means. A To Re-shelve copy also leaves the page early if a new hold is placed for that item, which claims the set-aside copy on the spot.

Unassignable holds have no staff action — they just wait in the queue until a copy comes available, at which point they become assignable and surface on screen: To Pull.

The Holds workflow page covers this end to end.

Queue order is editable

The queue defaults to first-placed, first-served — the patron who placed the hold earliest sits at the front.

When you need to depart from it, a library manager can reorder the queue by hand from the item’s tab: Holds tab. It’s a deliberate, manager-only action for the exceptions: a teacher who needs a title for Monday’s lesson ahead of a student who placed first, or correcting a queue after a mistake. Staff without the library-manager grant see the queue but can’t reorder it. The Holds workflow page has the steps.

See also

• Holds workflow walks through the To Pull / All Holds / To Re-shelve routine end to end.
• Policies covers how pickup window and hold limits are configured.
• OPAC explains how patrons place holds from the catalog side.