LibGuides: DD 303 The U.S.-- China Tango (Chen): Item Status Displays

Deciphering Status displays for physical items

Available: Items are currently present on the shelf. Open the Location detail to see the status of individual items.
- Loanable - available for checkout
- Library use only - non-circulating item
Not available: These items are usually checked out to another person. To place a request for it, log in to your library account and click “Pick it Up” under the “Get It” menu. Books that are on order also appear with this status.
Check shelf: This status, which usually appears in context of printed journals/periodicals, is a "ghost" from our retired legacy system and should be ignored. There should be accompanying listings of other locations that are accurate. You can ask at the service desk of the owning library for further information, or contact our Ask a Librarian service.

The "Boundwith" Puzzle

Sometimes when you open a record for a physical item in the Library Catalog, under Locations you'll see the message "We couldn't find any items to display". Below that there's a box of RELATED TITLES and one with the confusing title "Host bibliographic record for boundwith item barcode [number]". You may often see this when searching for older serials/periodicals that have complex cataloging histories.

Just click on the expand button to the right to see the actual item:

This is the actual item in question with the call number, numbering, location, and barcode information. You can place a Pick It Up request at this point.

This is how the system deals with "bound-with" materials, where multiple bibliographic entities, each with its own bibliographic record in the Catalog, are combined together in a single physical item. While confusing, this is actually how the software was designed to behave. (UT Austin did not create this software!)