On Order Items Notification

Once requested material is officially "on order" it shows up in the online catalogue, with text in the holdings area of the OPAC display saying something like "1 copy ordered for A/V Lab - New West on 15-05-2007 " or "1 copy ordered for Upper Level - New West on 02-04-2007 ".
Patrons/Staff can't put a hold on material that is "on order", in part because we don't know when or even if it will ever arrive. Filling out a rush request form for material that is "on order" is really just a manual way of trying to put a hold on it, and unfortunally doesn't work because Tech Services can't rush something that hasn't arrived yet and we have no good way to keep track of these requests while waiting for what might be weeks or months for something to arrive.
So, please don't fill out a rush request form for material that is "on order". In VERY RARE circumstances we might be able to expidite an order to get it in a bit quicker, if it is available, but it would have to be a pretty exceptional circumstance for us to be able to rush an order, and generally we have to pay a fee to do this.

There is something you can suggest to patrons who would like to get the "on order" material when it arrives. Our Innovative library system supports something called "preferred searches with notification of new arrival" which patrons/staff can set up under their account. You can set up a search for a specific title that is currently "on order" and when it has been catalogued by Tech Services you'll receive an email that tells you its now available. The Innovative system checks the preferred searches every Monday morning at 4am and sends out any notification emails at that time.
To learn more about this notification service, see our web page http://douglascollege.ca/library/current.html#Catalogue under the section titled "Setting up a Current Awareness Service for the Library Catalogue".
If you have any questions about this, feel free to email me.

Kathleen (Kathy) Peters
Operations Supervisor - Technical Services
Douglas College Library - New Westminster Campus
(604) 527 - 5260
petersk@douglas.bc.ca