Requesting Books Without Any Items

Ideally, every bib record in our catalog would list items that borrowers could request or checkout. However, sometimes a search will return a bib record that doesn't show any items. This occurs for one of two reasons:

1. "Lost" or "missing" items are hidden from the public catalog. Thus, if all items for a particular record are lost or missing, no items will be shown.
2. We no longer own any items for that particular resource. This happens when the library deletes items either because they have been lost or missing long enough they are unlikely to be returned or because the items are old or damaged and should be removed from the collection.

In the first situation, when a borrower tries to request the resource, the catalog will say, "This title is not available for requests." While this may not be the clearest message, it at least says that the item can't be requested.

However, in the second situation the catalog will say, "Visit the full bib page: All the items in this bib are bookable¹. Book a copy of this bib from the full bib page." This is due to a bug in our catalog. These items no longer exist in our system and so they cannot be requested or checked out.

In both cases, the best way to borrower the resource is by submitting an interlibrary loan request in order to borrow the item from another library outside our district.

¹What is a "bookable item?" This is a catalog module that allows borrowers to reserve library materials for a specific date and time. It is most often used in an academic library setting for resources located in closed stacks. None of the High Plains Library District's collections are bookable.