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.

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.

Item Order in the Catalog

When using the keyword search indexes, the catalog returns results in a "bib summary" format. This means that it shows brief bibliographic information such as the title, author, publisher, publication date, and up to two items per resource. However, many of our resources have more than two items. In order to see the full list of items, and additional information about the resource, you must click on the title to display the "Full Bib."

How does the catalog determine which two items to display on the bib summary screen? Naturally, the answer is complicated. Our catalog uses two criteria to determine which items will display first.

• The library location your catalog is using
• The availability of an item

Each instance of our catalog is assigned a default library location. The general catalog that is accessed either from our website or by going directly to http://catalog.mylibrary.us/, is assigned to the Farr Regional Libray. This means that items will display using Farr libary's default order which is Farr Regional Library followed by Centennial Park, Lincoln Park and then the other libraries in the district. However, the catalog-only computers (PACs) within a specific library have that library's items listed first. For instance, Carbon Valley Regional Library's PACs would show Carbon Valley's items first followed by Erie Community Library. Note: this is true only for the PACs in the library. If you are in the library but access the catalog from our website, your default location will be Farr.

If all the items listed on a resource are available for checkout, they will appear in the order listed above. However, if some of the items are checked out, the checked in items recieve priority in the display. For example, if I'm using a Carbon Valley PAC but the Carbon Valley item is checked out, I might see the Erie item first in the list followed by the Farr item. Thus, if you are using a PAC within a library, you can quickly see on the search results whether an item is currently available at that location.

Catalog Trick: I mentioned above that only the PACs within the library are assigned to that library's location. However, there is a way to trick the catalog into believing you are using one of those PACs. When performing a search in our catalog, the web address appears at the top of the browser. It usually is a jumble of letters and numbers that look something like this: http://catalog.mylibrary.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&aspect=subtab240&npp=10&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=weld&ri=2&source=~!horizon&index=.TS&term=birthday+cakes&x=0&y=0&aspect=subtab240. Within all this mess, there is a phrase that says "profile=weld". The profile is what tells the catalog which location it is searching from. In this case, "weld" stands for the profile that is accessed from the internet. By changing the profile code, you can change which location the catalog is associated with. For example, if I change the url to http://catalog.mylibrary.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&aspect=subtab240&npp=10&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=cvr&ri=2&source=~!horizon&index=.TS&term=birthday+cakes&x=0&y=0&aspect=subtab240, the catalog will show Carbon Valley's items first. Here's a quick list of the catalog web addresses for each location:

• Carbon Valley Regional Library - http://catalog.mylibrary.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=cvr
• Centennial Park Library - http://catalog.mylibrary.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=cp
• Erie Community Library - http://catalog.mylibrary.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=erib
• Farr Regional Library - http://catalog.mylibrary.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=weld (this is the default you get when accessing the catalog from home)
• Lincoln Park Library - http://catalog.mylibrary.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=lp
• Eaton Public Library - http://catalog.mylibrary.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=eat
• Fort Lupton Public & School Library - http://catalog.mylibrary.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=ftl
• Glenn A. Jones, M.D. Memorial Library - http://catalog.mylibrary.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=joh
• Hudson Public Library - http://catalog.mylibrary.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=hud
• Northern Plains Public Library - http://catalog.mylibrary.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=aul

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.