Wishlist: Ability to Reserve Bookings in the OPAC

[John Amundson]

I did not find this functionality described in documentation or elsewhere on launchpad. Please point me in the right direction if I missed something.

We have a library that would like to expand the functionality of the Booking module in Evergreen to allow patrons to place their own reservations on resources.

LP Bug #1797934 introduced the ability to view reservations in the OPAC. This would expand on that.

An example:

- A patron wants to bake a cake for their child's birthday in November and wants to reserve a fun cake pan from the library now (August). Right now the only ways to do this are either through a traditional hold with no guarantee that the cake pan will be available on the right day or by asking staff to place a reservation through the booking module. The patron has no direct access to the booking module to place their own reservation.

Right now, many of our libraries use third-party software like Tix Keeper for this functionality. It would be beneficial to have it built directly into Evergreen.

[Jane Sandberg (sandbergja)]

100% agree that this would be really useful. The main barrier I see is that libraries will probably want to place restrictions on how many reservations a patron can place, as well as how long those reservations last. Those restrictions might also differ by resource type.

For example: right now, there's nothing preventing a staff member from reserving a meeting room 9am-5pm every day of the year for the same patron. Most libraries would want to prevent a patron from doing that in a self-service way.

[Joan Kranich (jkranich)]

The need for patrons to place their own bookings in the public catalog continues to be a need in C/W MARS. I agree that there would need to be parameters to limit the number of bookings as Jane points out. Our libraries would like to use Booking not just for rooms but for museum passes and library of things material as John mentioned (cake pan). Our libraries have all types of things. For example, a bicycle that a person would want to borrow for a specific day and time. Adding a comment to mention the need still exists. I was just asked yesterday.