July 2025

Quick Facts

• Each location will receive a missing list to be searched each month.
• Items not found from the missing list will be removed from the system. Staff do not need to take any additional steps.

Procedure

1. Each month, all locations will receive a spreadsheet of Missing items.
2. Sort your spreadsheet if needed.
3. Search for the items.
   1. Start in the place the item would usually be shelved, even if that wasn't its Last Known Placement.
   2. If the item is not found in its usual place, and the Last Known Placement was a Display shelf, search your display shelves. You can sort the list by Last Known Placement to make this search easier.
   3. You don’t need to second-search any other Last Known Placements.
4. When you find items from the list, check them in. This will remove them from the list.
   • If any items are not found, you don’t need to update them. They will be automatically removed from the catalog if they are still missing after a year.
5. If the Last Known Placement is a Transport Unit, please review your booping procedures to make sure that steps aren’t getting missed.

Some possibly useful terminology:

Policy

Items that are not found on the public shelves or hold shelves, claims returned items, and items that show as On Holdshelf or In Transit for more than 30 days are set to Missing. All missing items are searched 4-8 weeks after they are set missing. Missing items not found within one year will be removed from the catalog. Items that are lost (either reported lost by patrons, or overdue for long enough that they are assumed lost) do not appear on the missing list.

Rationale

Items that are not found are checked out to Missing user so that staff and patrons know they are not available. Missing items do not appear on paging lists or in the online catalog. Items are removed from the catalog in order to keep an accurate catalog of library materials. The one-year search period allows time for items to be found.