Friday

Tips for placing holds

 

I know the catalog can be tricky and there are often multiple records for one title.  If you are looking for a popular book like The Hunger Games or Fifty Shades series, it’s best to limit your search to your home library and then place your hold.

Each library gives hold priority to their patrons.  That means if you go to a library that is not your home library and place a hold, you will be skipped over by all their patrons.  This also means that they will not send out an item if there are holds at their library.  You will have to wait until their list is complete until they will fill your hold.  You will wait for a very long time for some books.

Most libraries will not loan new materials to other libraries for at least 3-6 months.  They want to give their patrons a chance to read new material before sending out to other libraries.  You can tell which ones will send items out.  On the record, under material type it will have “ILL OK”.  If they won’t send it out, it’ll have “Local holds only”.

If it looks like the library doesn’t own a certain title or if you have any questions about searching that catalog, ask a librarian.  We are here to help. 

Angela

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