[Michlib-l] Hold Shelf Privacy Responses

[Shane Stewart]

Ours are behind the circulation counter. No one can see the name of who the
item is reserved for except staff.

[We] recently (about a year ago?) went to self-serve holds, except with MeL
books (on shelves behind circ).

Concerned with patron privacy, we use only the 1st 4 letters of the
patron’s last name and the last four of the patron’s card number on the
slip that wraps the book.  We also wrap the book with the spine facing
toward the back of the shelf. The patrons have not complained, to my
knowledge.

We have a self-serve hold shelf.  In order to keep it more private, we
place the spines inward and the slip with the name sticks out of the pages
of the book facing the back cover.  I hope this helps.

We have always wondered about this!  We started open hold shelves about six
months ago.  We lay the books title down and have the patron’s name on a
slip of paper that sticks out the end.  So far – so good!

We keep our holds behind the front desk for privacy reasons.  It’s worked
out well for us.

We have had self-serve holds for a number of years now (at least 9, I
think), and changed at the same time we added self-check machines.  I
suspect we are not alone in this timing!   I too was skeptical at first but
there hasn't been a problem.  We even do it with MeL loans now and have yet
to lose a MeL loan this way (our own items have gone missing from time to
time, though).

As far as privacy goes, our shelves are right across from our desk, in full
view of the staff, which helps.  We've really only had one patron look at
others' holds, but this patron is one of our most difficult ones anyway and
stopped after being told not to do so.

We wrap the spine with a half-sheet of paper, which allows us to cover the
spine label and a good portion of the title, and shelve our own items with
the spine facing outwards.  For MeL items we wrap (again with a half-sheet
of paper) the edge of the book and shelve the items with the spine inwards;
we had gotten into the habit of doing this when they were shelved behind
our desk.

About the only thing that comes up is this: a patron pulls a hold off the
shelf, decides they don't want it, and then returns the item to our sorter
without telling anyone.  The hold stays active (with the same pickup date
as before) and there is then a bit of confusion until we figure it all
out.  However, this doesn't happen very often.  We also have the occasional
hold leave without being checked out, but again this is very rare.

I would be interested to hear about other libraries' experiences,
particularly those who use automatically-printed hold wrappers as those
appear to be smaller than our current hold wrapper.

We have a lot of holds and no place to store them behind our Circ desk.  We
have shelves just outside each side of the Circ desk where they are held.
A-L is on one side, M-Z is on the other.  We generate a printed paper when
the requested material is available with their last name running down the
spine. The paper is folded it to fit around the book, dvd, etc. and secured
with a rubberband and they are filed alphabetically by last name on the
shelves. This seems to be working well and allows the patrons to be
self-sufficient.

We keep our regular patron holds in a self-serve shelving area.  Some
things we do to protect their privacy are to shelve the books spine IN, so
only the ends of the pages are showing, or the lock side of a DVD lock
box.  Other than that, it's not very private, although we have not had any
complaints that I know of.

I know [another] Library allow patrons to make up a fake name (I forget
what they call it - an avatar?) that goes on their holds.  So, for example,
their holds could be under "Batman" instead of their real name.  In looking
at their holds shelves, some people took advantage of this and some
didn't.  Maybe 30% did and 70% didn't?  (I was on vacation, not paying
super close attention.)

I made this suggestion to our library, but it wasn't acted on.  It might be
that our software (Polaris) doesn't have this capability, or maybe we just
haven't had complaints about privacy.

Our interlibrary loan holds we keep behind our circulation desk for
safe-keeping.

we have self-serve hold shelves. We shelve the books spine in, so patrons
cannot see the titles others are checking out. We have not had any issues
with this method as far as I am aware.

We keep behind the desk for privacy reasons.

[We] keep holds behind the circulation desk.  Items
are not disclosed unless either the holding patron or his or her library
card is present.  I have wondered about self-serve hold shelves myself.
Privacy seems very difficult to maintain.

We just started self-serve holds a week ago today.  Our ILS (Sirsi
Symphony) has a hold wrapper receipt option that can be customized.  We
chose to include first 3 letters of the patron last name + last four digits
of the patron library card number.  We also shelve the items spine down for
extra privacy.  I think our system seems private- though with only 3
letters of the last name we have multiple SMI or BRO out at any given time,
but with the last 4 of the library card we can keep the items separate.  We
do have patrons pulling and handling other patrons’ items already.

An option that we will offer anyone who is still concerned about privacy is
slipping their items into large manila envelopes, or possibly shelving in
our former holds drawers.

We’ve been self-serve since our remodel about seven years ago, but are
considering going back to keeping holds behind the checkout desk. It’s not
that patrons have complained, we feel it would be less of a violation of
privacy. However, since then we’ve introduced self-check so there’s that to
consider and some patrons are content with the flow: walk-in, pickup holds,
checkout through self-check, leave.

In my opinion, it's a major privacy violation and a serious violation of
professional ethics.
https://journals.ala.org/index.php/rusq/article/view/3797/4151




-- 
Shane Stewart
Circulation Supervisor
Chesterfield Township Library
50560 Patricia Ave.
Chesterfield, MI 48051
Phone: 586-598-4900
Fax: 586-598-7900
E-mail: shanestewart at chelibrary.org
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