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

Where O' Where have the Popular Checkouts Gone?!

Recently there have been some interesting ways books have been shelved: this week is no different and perhaps not very surprising…especially with books that have been used a lot.

I’m not sure if it’s because folks are afraid to check things out so they read them in the library and stash them in interesting locations, or they pull books off the shelves, think they are going to check them out, change their minds and decide to help library staff by re-shelving books.

So here the two examples I’ve found today whilst looking in the stacks:

PS3554.I319 P57 2008 shelved as PS3559.I319 P57 2008 –I’m not sure how a 4 looks like a 9, but I guess it just goes to show that anything is possible. (could be of course that this particular book has had 44 checkouts and 4 times marked as used)

F394.G2 L37 1999 shelved as F592.G2 L37 1999 and checked out at least 22 times–The missing book was supposed to be shelved with the Texan history section but instead it was hanging out with the Missourian. At least the 9’s are correct right? F’s are always interesting to search for since the numbers are almost always mixed up, you will most likely always end up virtually shelf-reading the whole F call number ranges to find them…or they could be with the oversized (labeled in our library as "f" and "ff").

Happy Searching folks!

Number Scramble!

Reading call numbers is a science-almost-art like quality that gets lost on many readers. Most folks tend to only read the beginning and the end of something, but miss the middle entirely. However, the middle often contains the most important bit of information. Such is the case with call numbers.

For some reason the beginning number after the letter(s) tend to get read this way. Here are some examples of books I have found located under this logic. First will be the call number I was looking for matched with the call number where I found it. In most cases these call numbers are located a couple sections a part, but others there was quite a bit of distance between the two.

E446 .H27 2007 shelved as E444 .H27 2007

HD57.7 .B373 2006 shelved as HD58.7 .B373 2006 (for some reason this happens all the time for these books)

HX239 .B47 2006 shelved as HX236 .B47 2006

PN3435 .L4 shelved as PN3355 .L4

PS3563.O8749 L68 2003 shelved as PS3553.O8749 L68 2003 (this happens ALL the time for all PS’s)

Of course, it would always be a good idea to look for these sort of mix-ups in other letter ranges as well such as that PS one, look for it in the same way in the PR section because it does happen (though coincidentally, I don’t have a current example…see a future posting).

So, case in point, try to mix up the numbers in between because sadly, those are the numbers that will get scrambled or worse another number will get substituted.

Happy Searching!

Plays and Cutter Mishaps to Say the Least

Searching for plays is a love/hate relationship (well more of a hate relationship, but I love it when they are finally found within the 6 week search window). Unless they are bound together in a collected plays collection, many of them are very small and less than 100 pages. You know the ones I'm talking about, the ones printed by Samuel French in softbound paper covers, and easily bent, torn apart, and damaged. Needless to say, they give my search assistants and me a HUGE headache looking for them.

Today, one of my assistants found one that I had been looking for almost 6 weeks now!! Recent Tragic Events by Craig Wright with the call number PS3573 .R53240 R43 2004 was hanging out with the PS3573.I(insert rest of call number here). Apparently Rs look like Is now and I'm pretty sure everyone is wondering, "Why did you miss this?!" Well friends, it's because plays are illusive, probably because someone looked at it and then moved it, or I was probably driving myself crazy trying to find it in the first place and simply overlooked it (hey, we are all human right?) In this particular section there are several playwrights/authors with the last name of Wright to add to the madness.

So here are some tips I like to use while looking for plays (besides the obvious statement of they could be anywhere):

1. Look along the shelf, section, and sections next to the proper shelving location. It's always a good idea to look behind the books on the shelf too because they could have fallen back behind them (This is particularly true in the PS3600's). Plus, looking along the whole aisle/row wouldn't be a bad idea.

2. Mix up your numbers and cutters (the bits after the decimal). Examples of this are a PS3573 could be a PS3537 or PS3573.R53240 R43 2004 could be PS3573.R43 R53240 2004 (or in the case of this unfortunate play, the R was reinvented into an I.

3. Think dyslexically. Like this play, the R turned into an I. The same can be said of any other part of the call number. PS could be PR (happens all the time), PS3573 could be PS3273, PS3373, etc.

4. Look in places where you know there are going to be a lot of plays. Examples of famous playwrights are Tennessee Williams, Lanford Wilson, August Wilson, Don Nigro to name a few (our library has several if not most of all of these works). Alternatively, you can look to find a group of plays and look at those to see if any are where they shouldn't be (though I tend to do this as a last resort).

5. For our library the key play shelving mishaps are between the call numbers beginning with PS3525-PS3620 (or beyond, I can't remember when it ends though the PS 3600+ are a pain). Therefore, I look at every cutter part that begins with R in the case of Mr. Wright's missing play. (examples: Though Recent Tragic Events begins with a PS3573, I look at all of the other PS's at their R's- PS3539.R53240, PS3559.R53240, etc.).

6. Sometimes patrons are lazy and instead of putting books and plays they are finished looking at on the 'to-be-shelved' cart, they sometimes reshelve their materials at the end of a shelf...no where near where the proper shelving location is. I use this as a last-ditch attempt too if all else fails, but I always keep on the lookout for these items while I'm searching anyway.

7. Even though they take a while to search, keep your cool and don't get frustrated. If the patron needs the play that badly, there is always interlibrary loan.

Anyway, this post has become long-winded enough, so I hope this helps all who are trying to find the missing, illusive, and pesky little plays. If I think of anything else, I'll add it to the comments section.