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How to Place Holds

About Requests

You can request an item owned by the library if:

• All copies of the item are checked out.
• An item you want is not available at your local community library but is owned by another library within the Santa Clara County Library System.
• A new item has been ordered by the library but is not yet available to be checked out.  These items have the status of “On Order” in the web catalog.

When the item you request becomes available, you will be notified and the item will be held for you at the library of your choosing.

Each library card can have up to 10 requests at the same time.

All requests for materials owned by the Santa Clara County Library System are free.

If an item has more than one request, requests will be processed in the order they were placed (that is, “first-come, first-served”).  You can see how many requests a particular item has in the search results screen or in the page of information on the item itself. 

Library materials that can be checked out can usually be requested through the web catalog. Two browsing collections that cannot be reserved are the bestseller collections and new adult and teen feature movies (holds can only be placed on adult and teen feature movies that are older than 1 year + current year).

If you try to request an item through the web catalog and receive the message:
Unable to place a request on this item. The maximum requests for this item type has been exceeded.
It simply means that the item cannot be requested.

Items not listed in the library catalog cannot be requested.  See either the instructions for Interlibrary Loan or the Suggestions for Purchase. 

• Each Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request counts as 1 request. 
• You can indicate on the Suggestion for Purchase form if you are interested in being placed on the reserve list if the library purchases the item.  Each item the library buys and reserves for you counts as 1 of your 10 available requests. 

How to Place and Manage Holds Using the New Online Catalog

Click here for instructions on using the new catalog to place or manage holds.

How to Place Holds Using the Former Online Catalog

After searching the former web catalog and locating an item you want to request, click on the
Request Item button:

If you are not already logged in, a new screen will appear:
Click in the Library card number box and type your Santa Clara County Library card number.  Do not include the spaces between the numbers. 
Click inside the PIN box and type your four-digit PIN number.
Click on the Login: To protect your privacy, logout when finished button.

A new screen will appear asking you to confirm your request:

By default, the item you requested will be held for you to pick up at the Santa Clara County library location you chose when you signed up for a library card.  If you want to pick up the item at another library, select another location from the dropdown menu. 

Click the Submit button.

The next screen will confirm that your request has been successfully placed. 
Pressing Return to Searching will return you to the library catalog and keep you logged in.   
If you press Logout and Return, you will be logged out of your account and returned to the catalog.

You will be notified by email, telephone or postal mail when your request is available for pickup. The method of notification is based on how your library account is set up. Email notices are our default notification method. To change your hold notification preference, please ask at your library, email us at circulation@sccl.org, or call 800-286-1991. The message will tell you where the item is held and how long it will be held for you.

To Check the Status of Your Hold Requests:

From the library’s homepage, click on the Catalog and My Account button.
Wait for the new page to load, then click on the Check My Account link.

Click in the Library card number box and type your Santa Clara County Library card number.  Do not include the spaces between the numbers. 
Click inside the PIN box and type your four-digit PIN number.
Click on the Login: To protect your privacy, logout when finished button.

When the page is done loading, you will now see an Account Overview.  There is a summary of your Hold Requests, telling you how many hold requests are available for pickup and the number that are not yet available.

To see more detail on the status of each of your hold requests, either click on the Hold Requests link to the left or the Holds link at the top:



From here, you can manage your hold requests.

To Manage Your Hold Requests:

You can cancel requests that are not available for pickup. 

Once you are viewing the detailed status of each of your hold requests:
Click on the checkbox to the left of the item request you want to cancel.
Press the Cancel Request button:

If you will not be available to pick up material you have requested, you can suspend requests so that they are inactive until later dates. 

Click the checkboxes to the left of the items which you want to make inactive.

By default, your requests will be suspended for 1 year and then will become active again.  If you want to change the date when your requests will again become active, you can use the dropdown menus to change the day, month, and year.

Press the Change Status button:

Each item you selected will now show the updated status.

To make a request active again:

Click the checkbox to the left of the item which you want to make active.
Press the Change Status button.
The item you selected will now show the updated status.