Oversize Miss-shelving and British Plays

Recently I posted a blog about oversized books and their cranky ways and I thought I would provide an actual example of a couple I found yesterday to follow up:

• ff PZ8.3 .S848 CH 17 shelved at the end of the ff PQ's.
• ff PZ7 .T16123 AR 2006 shelved with the ff PN6737's.

Also, since I'm posting about miss-shelved items, I thought I would post one about a British play I found miss-shelved: 

• PR6063.C377 P550 2003 shelved as PR6023.C377 P550 2003.

Usually plays from this section usually end up in the PR6036, or oddly as a PR6045.  I think I might have found one shelved in the PR9000's too.

Happy Searching!

The Oddly Shelved from Fall 2013 Semester

As you can probably tell I haven’t posted on this blog in a while and it’s because I’ve been rather busy especially in the last weeks of the last semester.

Therefore, I thought I would post some of the oddly shelved examples I found and some of you have found from last semester:

• ·         BF575.H27 G55 2006 shelved as BF575.A27 G55 2006 (Yet another great reason why you should look in the sections surrounding it as well as everything that begins with BF575 or whatever beginning part of the call number you are looking for)
• ·         HG1552.E64 D49 2011 shelved as HD1552.E64 D49 2011 (Note these are now shelved on separate floors and yet because they are both H’s they still get miss-shelved among each other…make sure you search in all of these locations even if a letter is split between 2 + floors)
• ·         TR655 .H4780 2011 shelved as TH655 .H4780 2011 (Make sure you look as if it were shelved in other locations as well as all the other photography books since that area is almost always a mess and shelving nightmare)
• ·         PQ8180.17.A73 C6813 1983 shelved as PR8180.17.A73 C6813 1983 (Note PQ and PR are on separate floors like the HD/HG example)
• ·         QC981.8.C5 O77 2009 shelved as QD981.C5 O77 2009 (Not only was it shelved in the wrong letter, the decimal was completely dropped and forgotten)
• ·         P92.U5 B7 1989 shelved between P92.U5 O44 1999 and P92.U5 R8 (I’m not even going to venture a guess as to what happened here except it happens all the time so the only thing I can guess is someone was looking at it and put it back randomly, but at least it was near where it was supposed to be?)

Happy Searching!

Over sized/Over folio as their own Collection

Recently whenever I receive a search for an over sized/over folio book or even while I'm searching the stacks for something completely different, I stumble upon in the over sized collection an over sized book that doesn't even belong on that floor.

It's always hard already because no one seems to know what the FF or F means in front of the call number or the difference between the two.  When I first began as the search coordinator, all I ever usually had to worry about in regard to the over sized/over folio collection was that they usually were miss-shelved in both sections (F meaning the books are so large or sometimes rare they need to lay on their sides and FF meaning the book is a bit bigger than the regular books and require larger shelving), or they sometimes ended up in with the regular books.  This miss-shelving of the FF's usually occur with the art and photography books because they have the most.

However, now it seems as if they are treated as their own collection spread among different floors.  I have found ff PQ's with the ff PR's and I even found an ff Z mixed with the ff C's.  Therefore, if you are ever searching for an over sized/over folio book, make sure you are looking at every book that is in the over sized and over folio on that floor, where it would be shelved with the "regular" sized books, and possibly with the over sized books on other floors too.

Happy Searching!

The Miss-shelving Book Hider

Recently, while searching, I have encountered on several occasions books from 2 or 3 rows over crammed at the end of a shelf of books.  Also, on a shelf where the book end was slipping and some of the books leaning over, someone decided to cram a book (again 2 rows off where it should have been) in the little gap between the remaining upright books and the leaning ones. 

I’m unsure of who is doing this other than it is good practice for everyone who searches for missing items to occasionally look at the end of every shelf on every row as well as browse the books you pass by as you walk down the row.  Recently, I have found several miss-shelved items this way and on the rare occasion one that I had been looking for several months.  The most recent subjects this seems to be a reoccurring theme are all the G-GV’s, N’s, PN’s, PR , and PS.

Keep your eyes peeled and look out for books on the end of the shelves as well as the random miss-shelved ones in the middle of the shelf.

Happy Searching! J

How the mind tricks your eyes

Today, I received a search for a book with the call number PR9369.3.C58 Z65 2004, so I check the book’s statistics and saw it was recently checked in…weird right? I go upstairs going crazy looking for it in what I thought was the right call number range. However, what I thought was the right call number range, was really PR9639.3… So I continue looking and sure enough, the book was right where it was supposed to be shelved. At least I have the comfort of knowing that a fellow staff member and a few students couldn’t find it either probably because of the same mistake I made.

Case in point, your mind plays tricks on you especially when there are as many PR9639.3 as PR9369.3 books and if you are suffering from caffeine withdrawal as I was at the time.