Why Don't You Have This Thing?

Hey library fam! This month, let's tackle a frequent question: "Why don't you have this book / DVD / Playaway?" 

Much of the time, we've got what you need in-house, whether it's a book, DVD, etc. And if we don't, we can often get it for you from another library in our system (which we also call our 'consortium.' Sorry for the jargon!) Often, though, you're curious as to why we don't already have that item here for you -- especially because you have great reading taste! Here are a few Real True reasons why we might not:

1. We own the item, but the copy or copies are checked out.
2. We DID own the item, but it got damaged and had to be removed from the collection. Not so fun fact: Lots of items go 'out of print' within a year after publishing and don't get reprinted, so we can't replace them.
3. We can't own everything because, although it's freshly renovated, our building can only hold so many materials.
4. The item doesn't fit the guidelines of our Materials Selection Policy. Some items we don't buy: Textbooks, highly specialized medical or legal works, etc.
5. The item hasn't been published in the format you're requesting. This happens ESPECIALLY with large print and Playaway. In a perfect world, all items would be available in all formats, but relatively few large print volumes get published and even fewer Playaways.
6. Some digital content, such as e-books or digital audio, are only available on Kindle or Audible. Neither Kindle nor Audible titles can be purchased for use in libraries because Amazon will not lend to us. They'd rather have each person buy anything they want through their platforms. Yes, that's legal, but no, we don't like it either.
7. Some items are published either by tiny presses or independently (via CreateSpace, for instance). Wild stat: Over a million books are published every year. Many of those never get reviewed in the publications we read on what to order. So: If we don't know something exists, or it doesn't have any reviews out there by professionals, we may not order it. If an item only appears on Amazon for purchase, it most likely won't show up in our publications, i.e.
8. Last but certainly not least: We're having trouble getting some of our orders in a timely fashion. We use a company called Baker & Taylor to source many of our materials, and they have been slow to ship sometimes, even if we order waaaaaaaaay ahead of the publishing date. It can be weirdly random whether we get our NPL copy but, say, Peoria PL got their five copies just fine. Why? We wish we knew. 

"But wait!" you cry. "Why don't you just go to Barnes & Noble / Target / Meijer / Bobzbay for all your orders? Or even Amazon?" A good question, fam. Sometimes it's pricing reasons, sometimes it's logistical reasons since not every one of those retailers could handle our volume of business. 

Here's what you can count on, though. If you don't see what you want, you can always ask us for the item through our Suggest an Item for Loan or Purchase on the NPL website. The majority of the time, we can get what you need, but if we can't, we typically email or call to let you know. If the item isn't arriving as quickly as you'd like, know that we're frustrated too but ready with recommendations for something else you might like.

Keep requesting, fam. We're here to help!