February 19, 2021

Where'd that record go?

Every so often the NHAIS Help Desk hears from someone puzzled about not being able to find a record that they know they saw in the NHAIS ILL System mere minutes ago on another computer and/or when logged in with a different username. Sometimes this is explained by a temporary glitch in communications with one or more of the 130+ catalogs that the NHAIS ILL System checks. More often, though, it happens because different library catalogs are selected for the searches. To see which catalogs are being searched, click the "stack o' pancakes" icon (hover text says Select Resources).

You may have different sets of catalogs associated with different usernames (each library has 3 usernames assigned, ending with ILL, ALL, and CAT). Several catalogs have been added to the list since the system was launched in the fall of 2019 and it's possible some of the additions aren't reflected on some of your logins. The default resources for each username are set under Your Account > Your Favorite Resources. Follow directions on that screen to change the selections.

For interlibrary loan purposes, generally your best bet is to have all catalogs selected. Selecting individual catalogs to search will limit the choices you're given to create a request but doesn't govern which libraries your request will be routed to--the lender list is built by a process that functions separately from your searching.

For cataloging purposes, you may want to target just the NHU-PAC. It's near the middle of the list of catalogs and 95 percent of its more than 1.3 million bibliographic records come from OCLC. If you're using a Z39.50 client to download records from NHAIS, whether that client is built into your local ILS or a standalone program, it's configured to search only the NHU-PAC.

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