Dear Tech Guru, Where's My Hold?

Dear Tech Guru,

I have a question that isn’t really tech related - I was hoping you could help me figure out the status of my hold. I placed a hold on a book and it says it’s been on order forever. Where is my book?

Waiting for a Good Book

Hi Waiting,

This is a really good question. There are times when books are ordered by the library system some time before the publication date, so patrons can queue up on the holds list for their favorite authors’ next book (think James Paterson, Stephen King, Danielle Steel or Nora Roberts). So, you might feel like you have been on hold forever. I reached out to our Acquisitions and Cataloging Department to get some insight into how to track books through our public catalog.

When the Department orders a book, they create a temporary record in the library catalog. It will look something like this:

This view will not show you any branch information, or which library branches have ordered the book, or how many copies have been ordered. If you click on the title, and then on the “On Order” tab, you will see a list of the branches that have ordered the book.

Once the Department has received the title, they will start to create the real catalog record and it will look something like this:

This means the book is in the Acquisitions and Cataloging Department on a cart waiting to be cataloged. Now you can see how many copies were ordered and how many each branch is going to receive. If you click on the title, you’ll be able to view all the extra information like subject terms and genre. The book’s record still has to have some information changed and added before it can be sent to the branches. In the case of this book, it has to be assigned a call number (where you can find the book in the library) and have all the appropriate stickers and stamps applied. Some of these are applied in the Acquisitions and Cataloging Department, like the spine label (the sticker with the call number like F AUS or 823.7 AUS).

Once the Department has done all they need to do, the book is ready to be sent to the branch. That is when the record will look like this:

Once the branch receives the book, they will add their branch stamps and any colored tape they may use for their different collections. Then they scan the book into our system and it will change the status to either the shelf location (Juvenile Fiction), place the book on hold, or put it in transit to one of our other branches.

This book made it out to the branches while I was writing this post and you can see how some of the statuses have updated as the branches have completed their part in the process:

I hope this has cleared up any questions you may have had on tracking your hold!

Tech Guru!

- by Amelia, Information Technology Department