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Requesting Items: Fixed!

by eli

If you were unable to request (or find the link to request) items earlier, try again. We've fixed a problem that was preventing the "Request this Title" link from showing up on Titles that are on order. We are also working on a way to better show the results of your renewals.

If you'd like to request an item, be sure to login to your account first - or create an account if you haven't already, and then search the catalog for your desired item. Please give requesting another shot- especially if you were trying to request Eat a good meal before reading the book, however, as Sklar's examples sound delicious and may make you hungry!
You-Know-What.

Thanks for all your feedback and comments, more to come.

Eli
Tech Manager

Comments

Hey Matt, how are ya? Those aren't exactly permalinks, but they're as close as library catalogs get. You can assume that links like that should always work... but if our catalog vendor changes their code, all bets are off.

However, if you'd like to link into the catalog when posting on the site, you can use our <a href="/interwiki/1">interwiki</a> tags to do it.

I am doing well, thanks. I've got to post back to test out those [w:wiki|Wiki links]. What an [s:computers|interesting new tool].

t: is title, k: is keyword, a: is author, and s: is subject, right?

The sort link on "the search" returing results is giving an error

My requests show, but their availability is ambiguous ("1 of 1 Holds"). With the old system, I could determine whether a hold was available for pick-up or not. Will the new system indicate that a hold is available for pick-up when it becomes available?

tia

pidg,
When your hold becomes available, it will actually say "Ready for Pickup" and tell you where to pick it up. When your record says "1 of 1 holds", that means that there is only 1 hold on the item and it is yours.

[:/john|John]

Actually, gasdriver, 1 of 1 holds means that you are the only person who is currently requesting the item, and you will get it as soon as it's returned. I checked your holds to be sure everything was working properly, and it is. Your '1 of 1' items all only have one copy, and as soon as those copies are returned, they will be held for you. One of your items is due tomorrow, so you should be getting it soon, assuming it's returned on time.

And, fmlester, sorry I missed your comment earlier. Excepting a few snafus that have since been resolved, the only items that are not currently requestable are those that have no requestable items, such as titles with only missing copies, or items that have been purchased for the new Pittsfield Branch's collection but are not yet requestable. We are working on buying more copies of the latter items so that the titles will be requestable. This is different from the old system, which would let you attempt to request anything and tell you afterwards if it worked or not. The new system controls this by adding or removing the request link as appropriate.

Thanks for your comments!

[:eli]

Ah, that explains, I guess, why I can request some CDs in a Rhino "series" and not others -- there are some that are missing. If that is the case, is it possible to suppress them from patrons completely? They do us no good, really.

I agree, sooty. That was our intent, to supress records from public display that have no requestable items. We set it up that way, but it's just not working yet. We've got a couple more ideas to try.

[:eli]

No request item link was available for the two Robert Jordan Wheel of Time books on CD tonight when I tried. Please fix, me want, thank you! *smile*

cricket527, thanks for finding that problem; it led us to a configuration error that we haven't yet solved... basically, we don't have any circulating copies of that title yet, nor copies on order. The title isn't supposed to be showing up in searches in that case, but we're not sure why it's still being found. We'll work on that one.

briantrease, "Waiting for your copy" means that you've reached the top of the list, and your request is the next one to be filled. Sometimes that can still take a while for titles with few copies, but when you see that message, you know you're next in line.

Unfortunately, if you do a search for items under Call #, you still are not able to reserve the item once you find it! Help!

Also, it seems that you can only search for specific material (e.g. DVD, CD, etc...) by keyword. Why is that?

gwyndol, there isn't a "request this title" link on every hit in a call number search like there is for keyword searches, but if you click on a title to see the full record, you'll see a "request this title" near the top of the catalog window. Does that help?

As for the material limiters and keyword, we're still working on the advanced search screen, and we plan to add that feature.

In the old system, our account had a default for pickup at a particular library. I haven't found a way to achieve this in the new system, so much click a couple times for each item I reserve. Am I missing something?

dc47, you're not missing anything yet. The new system doesn't have this default behavior: we can either make you pick everytime, or never give you the opportunity to pick and always have requests go to your home library. Not everybody's 'home library' is set to where they would want to pick up requests, so we need to do a little work to give you the ability to change your home library before we can enable this feature. This is high on our list, and will be coming soon, but it's not just a matter of flipping a switch, unfortunately.

All the requests I made during the transition period were lost! I have put new requests on a few items since, but that put me very far down the wait list, so I am very disgruntled about this! Is there no longer a chance of retrieval of any of those records, or do I need to request each all over again (making me number 1,389,567th on the list!)

In reply to by Aysenur Unal (not verified)

Aysenur, I will contact you via email about this; we show 9 requests on your account dating as far back as March. We'll get it worked out.

I did not see a Request this Title option for the book "1-2-3 Magic". The status is "on holdshelf". Am I missing some reason why it isn't requestable?

pmemmott, we just discovered on friday that the system is not allowing web requests to be placed on items that are on the holdshelf. We're not sure why, but we're working on it. In the meantime, I've placed requests for you for both the book and the video (I wasn't sure which you wanted, so feel free to cancel the unwanted one). We'll figure it out this week.

[:eli]

It appears that some new items that are on hold can be requested and some can't. I'm not sure why this is, and it doesn't seem to be limited to items that are on the hold shelf. I'm glad that the issue will be looked at this week.

I am listed as being #2 of 2 holds on a book that I've been waiting for since May (5/10 to be exact). I decided to check when it's due back...only to discover that it's listed in the catalog as being "available" at Downtown. What's that about? (This is not a brand new book, I don't think...)

Willow, we're still ramping up request fulfillment, and the new system handles requests very differently from the old one from a staff perspective. We're trying to make the changes as minimal as possible from a patron perspective, but we're still discovering new system behaviors every day.

Ultimately, of course, you shouldn't be waiting in line for an item that's available, but this is still detritus from the transition and the process of sorting out our request workflow. Rest assured that the situation you describe is not acceptable to us, and stabilizing the request system is one of our top priorities.

In the meantime, take advantage of it and get your hands on your request early! =)

[:eli]

Has anything been figured out yet as to why certain items can't be put on hold? It would be good to know why certain titles do not have a "Request This Item" capability -- especially since all titles had that capability in the old catalog system.

I think it would be great if through our online accounts we could change which library we'd like to pick up a book at while it is still on hold. This summer, I've put myself on waitlists for several books for pickup at the West Branch library because it's closer and more convenient to my home, but by the time most of these requests come through I'll be back on campus at Michigan closer to the downtown branch, without a car. Just a suggestion!

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