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Bulk Holds at CHPL

Everything on this page is specific to one library — the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library (CHPL). The tutorial, how-to guides, reference and explanation are written for any Sierra site and do not depend on anything here. If you are at another library, read this page as a worked example of what your own deployment page would say.

Where to get the tool

There is no self-service download yet. Distribution is being built out in stages:

  • Today. bulk-holds.exe is handed out as a zip you unpack yourself; there is no download link. If you don't already have the zip, ask through the channel below.
  • Next (planned). Once the tool's source moves into this repository, each release will be published here as a versioned GitHub Release — a bulk-holds-<version>-win-x64.zip asset.
  • Eventually (planned). Packaged into CHPL's managed software distribution (Configuration Manager / Intune), arriving on staff workstations like any other approved application.

Who to ask for help

The help desk queue, which routes to the ILS Team — the people who look after the integrated library system.

Pickup location codes

The Branch Pickup Location column (or --pickup-location on the command line) takes a Sierra pickup-location code, such as dc in the tutorial. The authoritative list lives in Sierra, so it is not copied here: CHPL staff can open the Bulk Holds web application's New Batch page and expand the "View valid pickup location codes" panel to see every code alongside its branch name. The CLI checks each code against that same Sierra-backed list during the dry run, so an unrecognized code is caught before anything is placed (see Reference → Exit codes, exit 3).

If you are at another library, point at wherever your own Sierra pickup-location list is surfaced to staff rather than hand-maintaining a table here.

Local conventions

  • Runs are kept under your Documents folder by default; see Reference → File locations.
  • The tool is distributed as a zip you unpack yourself; there is no installer and no admin right required.

Tested against: Sierra 6.6 · CHPL production · 2026-08-27