Problem with New Books List
I was looking at our new books list on the Library Home Page today and noticed a real problem. Almost all of the books listed have the message "No copies available...estimated wait 9 days..."
After talking with Darla, I understand that this message comes up because we check out these books to the NewBookShelf and the estimated wait time is how long they are still checked out on a 3 week limit, I believe.
But..... this is a real problem for our patrons! It looks as if we have none of these books available, when in fact, they are almost ALL AVAILABLE!
Does someone know how to fix this SIRSI screen?
Yvonne
posted by Yvonne at 9:21 AM
3 Comments:
Yvonne
I agree it is a problem, but I don't think the problem is with the SIRSI which is telling us exactly what is happening: the book is checked out. The problem is with our procedure of checking books out to the New Book Shelf.
I suggest that instead of checking books out, we just temporarily change the location to new Book Shelf. My understanding is that we already do this, but we also check them out to New Book Shelf. I think this is a relatively simlpe step that Darla and Patti could probably sort out between themselves.
1:31 PM
Patti and I discussed this on Wednesday morning. She told me that Circ will stop checking out items to the patron "New Book Shelf" and will instead simply change the location code of each title to "New Book Shelf." This will take more time to do, but it will result in the title appearing in the catalog as located in "New Books" and available for checkout.
Circ will also run a bibliographic report listing titles located in "New Books" to be sure none have been overlooked before notifying me to send out the notices to faculty.
This should make the "New Books" list much more patron-friendly. Thanks to everyone in Circulation for their help!
10:11 AM
Some other points to consider regarding "New Books":
Should we think about labeling the "New Book" and McNaughton shelves? Maybe people browse these areas without realizing what they are. A sign might be helpful, especially since we are now mentioning this location in our notices to the faculty.
The link on our home page says "New Books (biweekly list)." Now that we don't update it biweekly, should we take out the last part? And since we have both books and films on the list, should we consider changing the name to something like "New Books and Films"?
Sirsi has given me directions on how to change the name in iBistro, so if we want something new, I will work on updating it.
Thanks, everyone.
12:31 PM
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