New, improved hit-count list

This post updates previous information about the hit-count feature which was introduced in March and significantly updated in April.

The hit-count list tells you how many occurrences of your search terms were found in the catalogs searched. If you search just one or two catalogs (by selecting them under Search Resources), you'll have a very short list:

If you search all available catalogs (the norm for interlibrary loan), you'll normally see the "Showing ## of ## results" count go up on the left side of the screen as the "Searching ## resources" count goes down on the right side of the screen while you wait for your search to finish:

You can view the hit-count list by hovering over the underlined number:

If you hover there while the searching is still going on, you'll probably see some circling arrows in place of numbers for the catalogs that haven't returned results yet:

If the ILL program was unable to communicate with a catalog, an alert symbol will appear in place of a number for that resource:

Using the facets on the left of the screen to limit what's displayed in the results doesn't change the hit-count list, which reflects the results of your original search. It likely will change the number displayed immediately after "Showing," which is the count of records shown (some of which may be hidden by your grouping choices).

Details on holdings and availability (where configured) may be seen below in the results list. Until you click the Add to Results Now button, though, that results list will reflect only matches found in the catalogs that quickly returned results, usually the union catalog (NHU-PAC) and sometimes also a few Z-targets. Clicking Add to Results Now also updates the facets display.

One more thing: what you see in the hit-count list doesn't govern where your ILL request will go. That's determined by the lender list build process which, after you submit your request, does its own searching of all catalogs using information in the record you chose to create your request and then puts potential lenders in order according to your library's preferred list of lenders, which follows lender selection policies in the NH Interlibrary Loan Protocol Manual.

[This post edited 1/16/24 to update a link.]