The Unlikeliest Obvious Place a Book can Hide

Common locations where books like to hide where they should be in the Stacks are in the Reference and Reserves collections.  Therefore, it is always a good idea to search for books in these locations as well as the BBT location house on the 2^nd floor of the Main/Older side of the building, the Jewish Studies room on the 9^th floor.  It is also important to search the Holds shelves (especially if it could be a 3 day hold), the shelf where books headed to Preservation Services are, and the shelf designated for books needing to go to Cataloging.  Finally, make sure you look on the billing shelf and in Jackie’s office as well because she keeps books patrons have damaged so they can come and review them with her if desired.

Books that are encyclopedias, dictionaries, or other reference guides can end up in Reference especially when the used to be a part of that collection and then weeded to the stacks.  Instead of printing a new label, we usually black out the Ref at the top of the call number and that can fade over time causing it to be confused.  However, books that have never been part of the Reference collection can still end up there too.  A recent search I found in Reference was Modern Portuguese: A Reference Grammar by Mario Perini PC544 .P47 2002 (this book has never been in the Reference collection). 

Books that end up in Reserves usually are textbook type or oddly business related books.  One I found recently in Reserves was Business and Professional Communication in the Global Workplace by H. Lloyd Goodall HF5718 G66 2010.  However, it is important to note most of the time books found on this shelf are still checked out to the returning patron.

Therefore, it is always important to check these locations for each search because you never know where that book will be found!

Happy Searching!

Books in Odd Places

Occasionally books turn up in the strangest places such as underneath the bookshelf bolted to the floor; stacked neatly in both stairwells, the bathroom, and inside chair/couch cushions and even desk drawers! 

While we don’t usually search regularly in these locations, if you are desperate enough to look in all of the areas of the library, then it might be worthwhile to look in that random chair cushion on the 6^th floor.

Happy Searching!

Find that DVD!

In the past semester or so, there have been several search requests for DVDs.  Since DVDs can be stashed literally everywhere and since we only have an hour or so to look for things, below is a strategy I use to search for DVDs.  In the catalog they are displayed as DV COM 6049 or DV COM 11361J.  However, on the shelf the genre sticker is above the DV.  Also, the J is to differentiate between the Entertainment DVD and the Instructional.  Some Instructionals have become Entertainment and had already shared a similar number, so we just added a J to the end.  Those that have a J come after the ones without it (example: DV COM 6049 would come before DV COM 6049J, but may or may not be the same film).  TV series all have the same call number, but will have a colon followed by the season and disc numbers (i.e. All of the seasons of The Big Bang Theory has a call number of DV TV 12928J:3/2).  Therefore, TV series can be particularly tricky to search.

First, I think it would be useful to give a theory as to why many DVDs disappear from their shelving location.  The most obvious reason is of course that it could be on a staff member’s desk awaiting to be checked out on his/her break, or by a student who found a DVD and has either stashed it in his/her locker or maybe holding on to it while studying, looking for other books, etc. before checking it out and leaving the library.  The other more depressing motive is that unfortunately the movie has been stolen from the collection.   We must search for them to the best of our ability for 6 weeks since we don’t know when or if these movies will ever make it back or to the Checkout Desk and is required before the liaison will consider a reorder request.

However, there is a mere glimmer of hope that it could be miss-shelved on the shelf and here is how you should search for them.  Sadly, you must basically shelf-read the genre to which they belong because some patron browsing will either confuse the numbers or put it back on the shelf at random totally missing the empty re-shelving shelf.  I would also look behind the shelf and the makeshift holder to see if it slipped behind.  Since students shelf-reading the DVDs ought to be looking behind them anyway, I would just do the section where it is supposed to be to save some time.

If you don’t see it in the genre to where it belongs, then you must branch out to the other genres.  Of course look to where it would be normally shelved within the other genres because someone might disagree with the genre it was cataloged in and are trying to be passive-aggressive about it.  However, you have an advantage here with looking in the other genres by our DVDs are coded with brightly colored labels with their abbreviations on them and therefore it is an easy task to look through these other sections.

Also, it would be a good idea to search the DVD Reserves shelves (because Entertainment DVDs can be on Reserves) and the Instructional return basket behind the Checkout Desk because sometimes folks get confused about their proper shelving location especially if a professor has placed a booking on the DVD.  Look in the damaged DVD basket and billing areas.  In addition look in the Instructional shelving location in Cathy Rothermel’s office because it could be hiding there on the shelf too even though this is rare. 

As for searching an Instructional DVD, shelf-read that whole collection since sometimes they don’t make it back in their proper place or the case is really skinny since they are boxed differently than our Entertainment DVDs.  Also, if you search for an Instructional DVD, make sure you look in the Entertainment collection as well.

This concludes the search tutorial for DVDs.  Good luck hunting for that missing DVD!

The Misreading of Call Numbers

Sorry for the not so appealing title for this post, but today while searching, I found my search on the shelf with some others where the cutter of the call number was read wrong.  The search had the call number PN1040 .A513 1997 and was shelved just after the PN1040 .A53 's.  It then clicked in my brain that a lot of patrons get confused on how to read the numbers of a call number.   Patrons’ confusion over reading call numbers is important because that is how we discover where they are miss-shelved.

Take for example the above call number, PN1040 .A513 1997 should be read where .A513 should be viewed as if you were reading a decimal.  In decimal reading, .513 is smaller than .53 and not larger.  Sometimes patrons don’t read it this way and see the .513 as 513 (five hundred thirteen), which is more than 53 (fifty-three) if you exclude the decimal point.  In addition, sometimes patrons think in the opposite direction when it comes to decimals as well where they stick a .513 before a .5.  Just because a decimal may have more numbers, does not mean it should go before a decimal with less numbers. 

Also sometimes, though rarer than the decimals, patrons read that PN1040 as being next to a PN104.  1040 is not one hundred forty, but one thousand forty as we would really read a 4 digit whole number this way without a decimal.  To continue on with numbers with decimals after the letters corresponding to the subject, 1040.56 is obviously more than 1040.5 (add a zero to the 5 and it becomes .50 which is less than .56 since zero is smaller than 6), but patrons also forget about that as well.

Therefore, we can use how patrons understand decimals and the other numbers in the LC call number system to our aid when searching for books by thinking the way they are misreading the numbers.

Hopefully in this explanation I have not confused you all and my attempt has not been in vain.

Happy Searching! J

Books Hiding Other Books

A good tip and a cardinal rule really is to always remember is to look behind the shelf of books of which you are searching even if that shelf is not where the book ought to be but could be. 

Well for a couple of weeks, I have been breaking this rule and ignoring my own tip when one of my student assistants found one of our missings hiding behind some other books on a shelf several shelves below where it ought to have been.  It didn’t look like it had fallen between the shelves (our shelves are metal with a nice sized gap formed with the sections from the next row.  Instead, after the book had already been miss-shelved, another shelver (whether it was patron or employee is unclear) had crammed several books in front of our poor missing book to the back and thus concealing it from view.

In case anyone was wondering what missing book it was, Practical Research Planning and Design Q180.55.M4 L43 2013, a nasty section on its own because of the decimal (there happens to be several books bearing 180.5) and because there are several “M” cutters that tend to confuse the eye.

So an important lesson and Cardinal Rule #1: Always check behind the books on the shelf of which you are learning.

Happy Searching! J

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

The "ff" at the beginning…

This weekend as I was searching for another book on the 9^th floor, I searched in the oversized collection (anything above 28 inches in dimension for our library) for that floor's call number range.  I found something rather odd, a ffN shelved at the very end for the collection, which is A, B, and C’s.

So I got to thinking about why there was an oversized N on the 9^th floor with the A,B,C’s and the only think I could think of was someone got confused by the ff at the beginning of the call number, or maybe they thought that all ff’s were shelved together.

Certainly a first for me!  Usually when ff’s go missing they are usually shelved as if they were a regular sized book (imagine all of the creative placements for attempting to put an oversized book on a teeny, tiny shelf!), or since people get confused with E’s and F’s too, they find themselves with the F’s as well as in the F’s ffs (say that 10 times fast!).

If you receive a request for an ff, not only should you look in the f’s (over-folio, the big, BIG stuff over 40 inches for our library) as well as the regular sized book as if the patron disregarded the ff, but also on every other floor in their ff section.  This may sound tedious, but you never know where ff books might pop up...or miss-shelved rather.

Happy Searching!