Thank you to the libraries and staff at the Service Center who participated in the February testing of hold slips. Data from the baseline study in November/December 2022 were compared to the hold slip data submitted for the week of February 13. Here are the takeaways based on the data submitted:

• For pulling holds, an average of 10 seconds per item is saved using hold slips over hold labels per item.
  • A location that pulls 70 items in their fill list will save over 11 minutes per day, over 77 minutes per week, and 66 hours per year.
• For processing expired holds, an average of 1 second per item is saved using hold slips over hold labels per item.
  • A location that pulls 20 items in their holds expired list will save 20 seconds per day, 100 seconds per week, and over 86 minutes per year (if pulling holds five days per week).
• For shelving delivery, an average of 8 seconds per item is saved using hold slips over hold labels per item.
  • A location that receives 100 items in their delivery will save over 13 minutes per day, over an hour per week, and 52 hours per year (across five deliveries).

Please note, these are averages from all branches. For example, it could be that ED experienced slower times with holds expired list, but AL, MC, etc. may experience faster averages.

Our initial goal of all libraries and the Service Center to test hold slips during February was to allow staff and guests to see how this would fully work as well as give staff time to establish a workflow. We wanted to do a one week of data gathering to compare to hold labels as well as do a big push to our guests to gather feedback once our hold shelves were all hold slips.

Based on guest feedback gathered from the Microsoft Form Marketing and Communications advertised in February, guests were asked to rank hold slips on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being “great”, 5 being “neutral”, and 1 being “not great”. We received 248 number of responses with an average rating of 7.89. 184 were 7+ rating and higher with 137 being a score of 10. Additionally, social media comments were gathered, and of the 67 responses, 57 were in support of hold slips.

With guests in support of hold slips and with data supporting hold slips are faster than hold labels, we will use hold slips moving forward.

Below is the full summary document with a link to data submitted.

What to expect moving forward:

• We are working on determining what to do with the current supply of hold labels (summer reading program anyone?).
• Hold label printers will stay where they are as of now.
• We are looking at our thermal paper options to see if we can find similar BPA free receipt paper with a heavier weight or possibly larger center, so it doesn’t curl the closer we get to the center.
• A group will be formed to take the current hold slip placements guides at various branches to create one document for all staff to assist with training and to be used as a reference guide.
• IT will look at adding more receipt printers to ensure staff workflow is sufficient at branches.
• CARL Manual has been updated to ensure staff know how to set the correct receipt template for hold slips and in transit holds.