Item vs. Bib Hold Requests

As most of you know, one of the very nice features in our catalog is the ability to request items that are either checked out or at another location. However, there are two different ways to request a title. You can either do a "bib level" request or an "item level request." (See this post for a refresher on the difference between a bib and item record.)

Placing a Bib Level Request
Bib level requests are the most common type of requests. Let's assume that I was interested in requesting Brain Rules for Baby, by John Medina. There are two different ways that a bib level request can be placed. Let's say that I started searching for this book using a Title Keyword search for the term brain rules. As you can see, this returns a couple of results. Each result shows a Request Item button on the right side of the screen. Clicking this button will result in a bib level request. At this point, I could also choose to click on the correct title to go to the full bib display for this title. In this case, there is another Request Item button that shows in the bottom right corner of the screen that will also allow me to make a bib level request.

Placing an Item Level Request
There are cases in which an item level request is more appropriate. To place an item level request, first go to the full bib of the record you are interested in. Then scroll down to the Copy/Holding information section. This section shows each physical copy that is owned by the library district. Find the specific copy you are interested in requesting and then click the corresponding Request Copy link on the right side of the screen.

Disadvantages of Item Level Holds
There are trade-offs to using either the bib or the item level request. The biggest problem with an item level request is that you could be passed by in the queue if a book came available other than the specific copy you requested.

For instance, let's pretend that I was interested in a book that was currently checked out at all the locations that owned it. Because I tend to visit Carbon Valley the most, I chose to place an item level hold for it. However, Farr Library's copy was returned before Carbon Valley's copy. If I had placed a bib level request for this book, once the book was checked in at Farr, it would have told the system to place it in the courier to send down to me at Carbon Valley. However, because I told the system I only wanted Carbon Valley's copy, the Farr copy will skip me and go to the second person in the queue.

The other major danger of placing an item level hold is that even though the item looks like it's available at your chosen library, it could have been stolen or misplaced and that copy cannot be found. When the librarians run the list of holds to pull, they will search for this item. However, if they can't find it, they will put it in trace status and will look for it later in more detail. If they still can't find it, they will change it to a missing status. Because you placed an item level hold, you are stuck with requesting that specific item during this entire process even if you could have received a copy from another library faster.

Advantages of an Item Level Request
In general, I suggest performing a bib level request. However, there are cases where an item level request is more appropriate.

• For newer TV Series, the entire season is checked out at one time. However, some of our older TV Series still have each disc attached to a different item record. Thus, you must do an item level request for disc 1 and then disc 2 and so on. You can see an example of this type of record if you look at Babylon 5: Season 1.
• Magazines are a similar example to the one above. In order to request a specific issue, you must choose the specific copy request option. You can see an example of this with Martha Stewart Living.
• Guidebooks are another example where each item may be different than the overall bib. In general, each item will be a different year that the guidebook was published. You can see Rick Steves' Best of Europe for an example of this type of record.
• You see an item is currently checked in at the library you plan to visit. There is some risk here because as I noted above, the item may be stolen or misplaced. Also, if it's a very popular item, another borrow may pick up the item and check it out before our staff have a chance to pull it for you. The borrower holding an item in their hand always has priority over a borrower who requested the item but it hasn't been pulled for them yet.

Where does a Bib Level Request come from?
Currently, Horizon isn't doing any location prioritization at all. Requests appear on the pull list of whichever library owns the item and is the next to run their pull list. This means that if I did a bib level request for an item that was available at both Erie and Carbon Valley and chose a pickup location of Carbon Valley, I may get the Erie copy if Erie staff run their pull list first. I have heard a rumor that there is a way to force the item to appear on the pull list of the pickup location if there are multiple copies available. However, this is something that I will have to explore further before we can try implementing it.

Browse Books via Lexile Measures

On Sunday I turned on a new feature, provided by LibraryThing, in our online catalog that allows our borrowers to browse books via Lexile Measures.

Lexile measures are one way to estimate how easy a book is to read. It is important to note that this measure is only intended to indicate how complicated the book is to read, not whether or not the subject matter is appropriate or interesting for a certain age group. Lexile measures do not correspond directly to specific grade levels. However, Lexile.com does provide a chart of "typical Lexile ranges" for each grade level.

To see an example of a Lexile measure, search for Zen Ties by Jon J Muth. If it exists, the reading level appears in the left column under series info or the professional review links. In this case, the Lexile measure is 460L. To see other books with the same Lexile level, click on the 460L link. A small window will pop up with other books that fall into this category. You can then click on the links for those books to get more information.

In addition to browsing books that exactly match your current book, you can also browse a range of Lexile measures. To do this, click on the 460L link as before. When the window pops open, you'll see sliders at the top that indicate the minimum and maximum measures that you wish to display. Click on the sliders, move them to your desired level range, and then click the Search button. Note: It may take several seconds for large search ranges to return results.

It is not necessary to first look up a book before browsing the Lexile measures. I've also added a link to this feature on our Advanced Search page. Below the text boxes and above the limits there is a link that says, "Click for Lexile Reading Level Search." If you click on this, a window will pop up similar to what happens when you click a reading measure link within a book's record. Like above, click on the sliders to move them to your desired range and then click the Search button. Note: There is a slight problem with how I implemented this box so if the first time you click the link the window doesn't pop up, wait a couple of seconds and try it again. I'll be researching ways to resolve this nagging problem.

Unfortunately, at this time there isn't a way to combine the Lexile browse with any other search criteria. Also, I have heard reports that some of our catalog-only computers within the library are having trouble with the sliding feature. I'm working on figuring out what the problem is and seeing if there is a solution.

You can read LibraryThing's official announcement here or read about their initial implementation in their personal catalog product.

What do you think of this new feature? Do you think the Lexlie Reading Level Search" link would be better on some other page than the advanced search?

Displaying Reviews in Our Catalog

As I've mentioned previously, one of the features we use from LibraryThing is the ability to rate books as well as read and write reviews. Currently, borrowers only see reviews if they click on the bib record.

Sometimes I want to be able to quickly see if a book has been rated instead of having to click each title so I added this feature to our test catalog. What do you think? Do you like seeing the ratings on the summary page in addition to the full bib page? Let me know by adding a comment to the blog entry or sending me an email.

Bibliographic and Item Records

There are an overwhelming number of terms used in libraryland. However, the two I use the most are "bib record" and "item record."

Bib Records
A bib record, or bibliographic record, is an entry in our catalog containing information about a specific resource such as a book or DVD. Here is an example of the bib record for a movie called Hero. In this case, the bib record displays title, subject, additional title, upc, performers, genre, language, description, and more. In our catalog, each edition of a resource receives its own bib record. For example, we have multiple bib records for The Da Vinci Code that include an unabridged audio book, mass market paperback, large print, hardcover 1st edition, special illustrated edition, and more.

Our catalog may display three different views of a bib record. The first is a summary screen that shows multiple bib records on one page. For example, here are the results for a title keyword search for The Da Vinci Code. On this screen you see only partial bib information that includes the title, author, publisher, and publication date. The second bib record view is called the "full bib record." Here is an example of a full bib record for a mass market edition of The Da Vinci Code. This is where you see much more extensive information about the book such as the subjects and any additional note fields. The final bib record view is called the MARC Display. You can access this view by going into the full bib record for any resource, scrolling down to the bottom of the page, and clicking the MARC Display link. Most people don't need the detail that the MARC display reveals which is why it is hidden by default.

Item Records
An item record contains information about one physical copy of a resource. In our catalog, this includes information about where to find a specific item such as which library it's at, what part of the library it should be shelved in, the call number, and whether or not it is currently on the shelf.

If you search our catalog using a keyword search, you will retrieve the bib summary view of the resources that match your search. In addition, you will see up to two items per title. However, the library may actually own significantly more than two copies. To see a complete list of libraries that own this book, you must click on the record's title to retrieve the full bib view and scroll down to the Copy/Holding information section toward the bottom of the page. For example, the paperback version of It Happened One Autumn is owned by the Farr, Lincoln Park, Erie, Ft Lupton Public and School, and Carbon Valley libraries. However, our initial search result only displayed Farr and Lincoln Park's items.

In my next post, I'll discuss how the catalog determines what order the bib and item records appear.