Coming Soon: OverDrive Holds Redelivery

Submitted by clark on

From OverDrive:
To give readers more control over their holds and help your waitlists cycle more efficiently, we are planning to update holds functionality in early 2020. This new feature, called hold redelivery, will soon replace auto-checkout. Please review the below information for important details about this change.
 

WHAT IS HOLD REDELIVERY?
Hold redelivery will allow users to suspend a hold even after it’s made available to them, while maintaining their place on the wait list. By enabling users to pass books they don’t have time to read on to the next person in line, hold redelivery will help your library connect more readers to the right book, at the right time.

WHEN WILL IT GO LIVE?
Hold redelivery will go live in early 2020 and will be applied to all new and existing holds. We will follow up in the new year with confirmation of timing.

HOW WILL IT WORK?
Libby notifications (coming soon) will alert users when their holds become available. We will also add a “Notifications” section to your OverDrive website and the OverDrive app. After receiving notification that a hold is available, users can:

  1. Borrow the title within 3 days. If your library has a different hold pick-up setting, OverDrive will automatically update it to 3 days.
  2. Suspend the hold and pass the book to the next person in line. After the suspension period (set by the user), the hold will be redelivered when the next copy is available.
  3. Cancel the hold.

If the user takes no action, their hold will automatically be suspended one time for 7 days. If no action is taken a second time, the hold will be cancelled automatically.
With the removal of auto-checkout, you may see a slight decrease in circulations. We expect this to level off over time as users adjust to the new functionality.

HELP & RESOURCES

Here are resources to help with the transition:

  • Libby updates: In addition to push notifications (coming soon), in-app help resources will guide users through the change.
  • Email notifications: Hold notification emails will be updated to reflect the new options.
  • Site messaging: We will add a message to your OverDrive website in early December informing users of the upcoming change.
  • Marketing and communication kit: We’ve added a video overview, FAQs, and more to our Resource Center—check it out today!
  • Marketplace tools: Suspended holds data is available in reporting and shopping features throughout OverDrive Marketplace. Suspended holds are excluded from holds ratio calculations, and you can choose whether they are included in Holds Manager plans.
  • API Integrations: We will message vendors who utilize OverDrive APIs about the plan to remove auto-checkout.