From Hold to Porch Pickup: Our Process at Plumfield
If you run a lending library, you know that placing a hold is the easy part. Getting the right books pulled, keeping track of what isn’t available yet, communicating with the family, and having everything ready when they arrive takes a little more thought.
We recently sat down as a team to walk through our holds process from beginning to end. We wanted to be clear about who does what and how the books move from one person to the next. For fellow librarians working through the same questions, here’s the process we’ve put together at Plumfield.
First, the patron places a hold
Our patrons place their holds through our Libib catalog. At the moment, they can’t place holds directly through our patron dashboard, so we direct them to the catalog and provide the password in their welcome email.
When a hold is placed, we receive an email notification. That gives us the information we need to begin pulling the books.
Pull the books—and leave a note about what’s missing
I handle the first part: gathering the available books and putting them in a bucket labeled with the patron’s name.
The bucket is also where I leave information for the next person. If a requested book is already checked out and needs to wait as an advanced hold, I write that on a slip of paper and put it with the books.
That little piece of paper matters. When I hand the bucket to Jack, he needs to know not only what I found but also what the family requested that isn’t included. Otherwise, he has a stack of books without the whole story.
My part of the process is to pull what’s available, identify what’s still pending, and pass along both the books and the information needed to communicate clearly with the patron.
Then, send the ready email
From there, Jack takes over the communication and pickup arrangements.
He emails the patron to let them know their holds are ready. If a book is still checked out, he explains that we’ll contact them when it becomes available.
All of our hold pickups take place on the porch in our pickup bins. Once the patron receives the ready email, they reply to let us know when they would like to pick up their books, allowing at least 48 hours before pickup.
Placing the hold and arranging the pickup are two separate steps. We first gather the books; then the family replies with a pickup date so we can have them checked out and waiting in the right place.
Give the books a place that tells you their status
Jack organizes the pulled holds in zippered pouches. We use two cubbies next to Greta to keep track of where each family is in the process:
- The top cubby is for holds awaiting a reply. We’ve contacted the patron, but we don’t yet have a pickup date.
- The bottom cubby is for scheduled pickups. The patron has replied, and we know when the books need to be ready.
Once the pickup date is confirmed, Jack writes it on the tape labeling the prepared holds and moves them to the bottom cubby. He also puts a reminder on his calendar to set the books out that morning.
The cubbies give us a simple visual distinction: these families still need to reply; these books have a date attached to them. We don’t have to reconstruct that information every time we look at the holds.
Check the books out using the pickup date
Once a patron confirms their pickup date, Jack scans every book and checks it out to that family.
We use the pickup date as the checkout date, even if he processes the books several days ahead. Libib allows us to enter that future checkout date. The due date is then 45 days after pickup.
This lets us do the checkout work in advance without using up part of the family’s borrowing time while the books are still sitting in our library.
Set the books out on pickup morning
On the scheduled morning, Jack moves the checked-out books to the porch pickup bins.
By then, the family has told us when they’re coming, the books are checked out, and the due date reflects their pickup date. The patron can collect the prepared holds from the porch without needing to come inside for checkout.
What about a book that’s already checked out?
Advanced holds need their own place to wait, too.
When a book with an advanced hold comes back, Greta puts it in our designated advanced-hold cubby with a sticky note identifying the patron it’s for. Jack then contacts that patron to let them know the book is available.
From there, it follows the same process as any other ready hold:
- The patron replies with a pickup date, allowing at least 48 hours.
- Jack prepares the books and labels them with that date.
- He checks them out using the pickup date and calculates the due date 45 days later.
- He sets them in the porch pickup bins on the scheduled morning.
The advanced-hold cubby keeps a returned book from losing its connection to the family waiting for it.
One distinction for librarians handling curriculum requests: we treat those separately. Our homeschool and curriculum book-pull policy does not include advanced holds, so the process above shouldn’t be read as a promise to reserve checked-out school books for a future curriculum request.
If you are curious about how we handle curriculum, you can read our article, here
The most useful part is the handoff
For us, the important part of this system is knowing where one person’s responsibility ends and the next person’s begins.
I pull the books and leave the notes. Jack handles the patron conversation, scheduling, organization, and checkout. Greta connects returned advanced-hold books with the patrons waiting for them.
If you’re working out a holds process for your own library, I’d start by walking through one request together. Who receives it? Who pulls it? Where does it wait? Who contacts the family? What tells you that a pickup date is confirmed?
Your answers may look different from ours. You may be doing all of those jobs yourself! Even then, having a place for books awaiting a reply, a place for scheduled pickups, and a clear point at which checkout happens can save you from having to remember the status of every stack.
That’s what we’re working toward: a process clear enough that we can spend less time figuring out what happens next and more time helping families find and enjoy good books.