Tuesday, March 17, 2009
A Universal Problem
When I put in my weekly volunteer hours at the Springfield City Library, one of my tasks is to search the shelves for missing books. Trevor is highly amused by this but it's necessary because often the books that are marked as missing in the OPAC (that's librarian-speak for on-line catalog), are sitting right there on the shelf exactly where they're supposed to be. Every once in a great while, a book is miss-shelved. Some are missing and have been for quite a while. I read this story today that demonstrates that this is a universal problem among libraries. Just wondering though, if some of those books have been missing for over 50 years, maybe it's time to get a replacement? I won't be hopping the pond any time soon to search for missing books at the British Library since I can only tolerate it for 1 hour a week.
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Missing books is indeed a common library problem, particularly those which have open stacks (as opposed to closed stacks where the public cannot browse the materials on their own). Every library I've worked in has addressed this issue to one degree or another and it is an on-going component of any good inventory control program involving theft protection systems, building security, public awareness and responsibility, good circulation practices, proper item processing, etc.
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