Schedule
Circulation Assistants are scheduled to page on the daily schedule. Paging is only scheduled when the public has access to the library. Paging hours are: Monday through Friday 1-4. During those hours, there is always a staff member whose responsibility it is to retrieve materials that are needed in the Reading Room.
Paging from Prints & Drawings/Textiles/Museum Conservation/ASR
In addition to Stacks B, K, 3, 4, and the pamphlet room, a number of library books are housed inside other departments. The largest examples are the Prints & Drawings and Textiles collections. Museum Conservation, Ancient Art, and Asian Art also have library books related to their fields that are permanently stored in their departments. These items will all have the name of the department displayed on the label and will have the same name as the permanent location in ALMA. Ideally, these books are able to be paged in the same manner as stacks items. However, due to schedules and circumstances, departments may not always be accessible for paging during all public hours. In these cases, you must let the patron know that the item will be retrieved later and put on Temporary Reserve. Be sure to get the patron’s contact info so they can be notified when the book is available.
Not on Shelf
If you do not find the requested book on the shelf, check to see whether it is misshelved by a few books on either side of its location, or whether it is hidden behind larger books. If you are still unable to find the book, give the call slip to the person at the Circulation Desk so that they can fill out a search slip (see section on Searches)
When paging gets busy
Our goal in paging is to keep the patron waiting no more than 10 minutes. If a number of call slips accumulate, first sort the slips by stack location: you should only page from one floor at time. Next, sort the slips so that those that were submitted first are paged first. Try to make sure that patrons are served evenly; it is better for seven different patrons each to get one book than for one patron to get seven books. If paging becomes so busy that patrons are in danger of waiting more than 10 minutes, notify the Circulation Manager for help.
When paging is slow
If no paging requests are submitted, the person assigned to paging should make checking any items on the returns counter in their next highest priority. Once the counter is clear, they may work organizing the pre-shelving area and preparing carts for shelving.
“On Demand” paging
There are several situations that require the person working the circulation desk to retrieve materials outside of public hours.
Docents
Docents are the one exception to our regular paging schedule. They do not have stack access or circulation privileges, but they may page books on demand, whenever they would like — even during non-public hours. Books needed beyond initial paging can be kept on Temporary Reserve.
Specials
Similarly, museum staff can request specials at any time of day. When a request for a special comes in, the person at the circulation desk should put up the sign, page the item, check it out to Staff Reserve, put it in the cabinet, and send a notification email to the requester using the email template in the circulation account.
Pamphlets
While pamphlet files are not technically classified as special collections items, they are unique and rare. As a result, we keep them in a limited access area. This requires us to page them whenever they are requested. Since pamphlets circulate regularly, they can (unlike specials) be checked out and put on the deliveries shelf for 3pm. For this reason, we can wait until paging hours to retrieve them instead of paging them right away like specials.
Rush Catalog requests
Like off-site requests, requests for Backlogs may come in at any time of day. We turn these into Rush Catalog requests by retrieving the book from the locked area of Stack B and delivering it directly to the head of Technical Services. The book will be cataloged and left on the labeling shelves as “notify” within a week.