My three books were entered in a local authors fair last year and they were on the “local authors” section but now they’re gone and the library doesn’t know what happened to them.
A part of me wants to think they’re just checked out, but they were never entered into the library’s card catalog system, so I have to assume that they were removed due to their content...but that’s weird considering there are a few copies of “If I Was Your Girl” on the shelf. A book that one of mine was strongly linked to on Amazon when it first came out due to their quasi-similar plots and main characters (and I’m worthy that, it was a good book in it’s own plot).
Anyway, no one at the library can tell me what happened to them.
So be it.
Comments
Odd, that.
That's rather odd.
In this day and age, noting circulates that isn't somehow in the library circulation database.
In general, that means there has to be a bibliographic record that the item id tag is attached to.
That said, I will admit that when I was working at The Chicago Public Library, way back in 1988-1994, there was a ton of fiction that was attached to a generic entry, such that all you knew about it was that it was a work of fiction. While this was officially frowned upon, and lists were sent around periodically for people to go through, find the physical items, and attach them to the correct entries, the branch libraries were short staffed enough that this was a very low priority from their perspective.
I'm guessing that in your case no one had catalogued your book on one of the major library cataloguing services, such as OCLC/WorldCat, in which case someone at your library would have to create a bibliographic record from scratch; that requires a far higher skill level than matching an item to a record someone else created, and many smaller libraries don't have anyone trained to do so. In which case, if they want to circulate the material without having created a proper bibliographic record, they'd do precisely what we were doing at CPL. The problem being, without knowing the bar code, there's no way to determine what's going on with the item if it's not on shelf.
If it had been removed because of it's content, they would retain a record of that; at least, that's considered good practice. This is because removal based upon content becomes a potential censorship challenge.
However, if it were removed because if had low circulation and they needed the space for newer acquisitions, there might not be a paper trail after the fact.
So there are four main possibilities in regard to what's going on with the item. 1) it's checked out. 2) it's misshelved. 3) it's been stolen. 4) it's been removed from the collection. But without the item ID, there's no way of checking any of these, except for 2, in which case it takes a physical search of the shelves to see if it ended up elsewhere in the building.
I know, not very helpful. But that's what my background as a librarian indicates might be going on.
Yours,
John Robert Mead
I want to think 2 or 3
I want to think 2 or 3
It's sad to hear, but if it
It's sad to hear, but if it was stolen at least there's hope it was stolen for enjoyment and to help someone who needed it...
I guess I now understand the local libraries in my region investing in barcode readers that set off an alarm if you try to remove a book or CD/DVD/blu-ray case without getting it scanned out
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime
Missing books
My local library has many books listed in the catalog but which can't be found. Since all are barcoded, the presumption is that they have been stolen, somehow without having been checked out, which would have let them know who had it out.
I don’t know if I should be
I don’t know if I should be flattered by the theft or mad that no one else can read them.
Do you have?
more copies that you could donate and this time make sure that they get properly recorded in the system?
Samantha
Not at the moment. I would
Not at the moment. I would need to order them.
I have thought about doing that and maybe submit them to other libraries around the area