Lending the right thing

Shipping the wrong book wastes time for you, the borrowing library, and the van drivers. How can you be sure you aren't guilty of this?

It's reasonable to assume that the request you got for The Catcher in the Rye is for the book--no audio or video versions of the story have ever been authorized. Even so, that request could be for a large print version of the story. And what about other titles that your library may have in multiple formats?

The 6 requests in the Lender's Pending List above are all for Little Women but the borrowers are hoping to get 6 different things. You can see different publication dates but that doesn't tell you exactly which manifestations of Louisa May Alcott's classic the borrowing libraries are seeking.

Adding the material type column (ᐊ image at left) to the view helps just a little. [Didn't know you could add columns to the display? Check this out.] Adding the call number column (image at right ᐅ) provides useful distinctions but still leaves us with 3 items labeled DVD Lit. [Don't see your call numbers attached to your holdings? See below.*]

Clicking on each title and looking at the bibliographic summary shows us further publication details but you'd need to dig even deeper to see that the three video requests are for the 2018 TV adaptation, last year's Greta Gerwig theatrical reworking, and the 1994 film with Winona Ryder as Jo. When looking at the Lender's Full Record Display(image below ᐁ) you can click on the link next to Verification to open a smaller window with all the data from the MARC record used to create the request.

Going back to the Lender's Brief Record Display (image at top), did you notice the pushpin icons showing on the left? You should--those indicate that notes have been added to the request and you'll need to click on the titles to see the notes in the Lender's Full Record Display.

The NHAIS Help Desk recently heard from a library that needed to create 4 successive requests before getting the audiobook sought--lenders sent print versions of the same title for the first 3 requests even though a properly coded audiobook record was used to create the request and a "This is an order for the AUDIO BOOK" note was added to the second request. Perhaps the lenders thought they were speeding things up by recognizing the title in the Lender's Pending List, grabbing the book, and marking it Shipped. Alas, they added several weeks to the process of the borrower getting the audiobook and added 3 unnecessary round-trips for the books on the van service.

[*If you don't see your call numbers attached to your holdings in the NHAIS ILL System, get in touch with the NHAIS Help Desk at 271-2141 or by e-mail to see if something can be done about that. For Z-targets, a simple tweak of the configuration may be all that's needed; for union catalog participants a brief chat will tell us what can be done.]