If one tries to create a "local use only" item type, there isn't a good way to make it impossible to place holds for anywhere other than its home branch. Setting restrictions on it in Circ rules allows any staff member with permissions to override the hold restrictions. Another option is setting an item to a lost status, but this is certainly not ideal: it clears the status every time the item is scanned, and it affects how it appears in the OPAC. What if there were a way to have finer control over the AllowHoldsPolicyOverride system preference? For instance, allow hold overrides as a separate permission for overriding circulation rules vs. overriding patron restrictions. It seems logical that overriding a restriction to check out to a patron is quite a bit different from ignoring specific circulation rules (if that makes sense). Perhaps another way to work around this would be a checkbox in the circulation rules with an option to "Ignore staff overrides" or something similar? It could be turned on or off for each individual circulation rule.
Thx for filing Michael!
Since the topic is on AllowHoldsPolicyOverride, I would also like to suggest that there be a permission in patron permissions for this. We don't want everyone being able to override holds. While we don't want everyone being able to place holds on lost items, there are situations where we want to have a staff member place a hold on a lost item, as they may have to decide if this item will continue circulating. Currently we can't do that unless we turn this setting on, but we don't want to just turn it on for everyone to override.