By Barbara Coopey

In keeping with our user-centered focus, Access Services Council in collaboration with the Circ Reserves Expert team, has been examining service alternatives to the recall process. This past year, several changes have been implemented in The CAT records to alert users when an item is unavailable. They are instead guided to use Interlibrary Loan services. There is a web page on the Access Services Intranet explaining the rationale and progress of the changes. https://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/access/intranet/catchanges12.html

For certain conditions such as checked out to another library, material at the bindery or being repaired, the due date displayed under Location in The CAT record has been replaced with the text This copy unavailable, submit request via Interlibrary Loan. This text is a “hot” link to Interlibrary Loan services for the user to place a request. In addition, items with these conditions are non-holdable. This means the “I Want It” will not display unless there is an available copy to satisfy a hold.

However, if an item is checked out to a local user, the due date is replaced with Checked out. Items checked out to local users are holdable, meaning the “I Want It” will display. The web page has images of CAT records with the various conditions. It also shows how these conditions are displayed in E-ZBorrow and Uborrow.