Missing Book Procedures:

Note: "Missing" is when a book should be on the shelf but is not.  "Lost" is a completely different situation, when a patron has an item checked out but has lost it.

YOU CAN'T FIND A BOOK:

If you've looked on the regular shelves and sorting shelves and can’t find a book that the system says is available, check the following areas: 1) TSS (both discard and repair boxes); 2) Hold shelves (both temporary and regular); 3) Damage shelf; 4) Branch shelves. If you still can’t find it, it needs to be marked missing.

• Go to the “Mark Item Missing” wizard on the circulation toolbar in Workflows.
• Search by title or Item ID and click “OK.”
• Click “Mark Item Missing” and select the correct copy if applicable.
• Once the item has been marked missing, iBistro won't keep telling patrons that the item is available. Periodically Circulation will search for of the items on the missing list and see if any of the items can be found. Items not found will eventually be marked DISCARD and withdrawn from the system.

YOU FIND A MISSING BOOK:

If you've found one of our prodigal books, check the status:

Click on the “Check Item Status” wizard. If it says that the item is checked out to “System Wide Missing Patron,” discharge the item and check the status again. The status should be “ON SHELF” and give you the appropriate location. Now the book is ready to go back into the collection.

Maintenance Stuff (Advanced)

Selectors receive regular reports on missing items in their areas so they can purchase replacements if they want.

A regular "ALBY Missing Monthly-All" report runs for Circ staff.  It contains items marked missing the previous month.  Staff take this report, print it, and either community service workers, staff, or volunteers may go look for the items on it, and discharge them if they find them, so they come off MISSING.

A regular "ALBY Missing List All Time" report also runs for Circ staff. This contains all items that are currently missing.  This is very long.  This report is mainly just for reference, but, if there's a huge amount of volunteers, they could look for all those items.

After 3 years, Missing items are deleted from the system by way of the monthly "ALBY Convert Missing to Discard" report.  Contact the WYLD office for more info about how this works.