Beyond the Catalog: Help

How do I request something that is not in the catalog?

• If you want a particular book, CD, DVD or other item not in the catalog, we have provided an online form that you can fill out.
  
• Please provide as much information as you can about the item you are requesting: author or performers, title, volume number if there is more than one volume, approximate date of publication, and ISBN if you know it.
  
• If you have found this item in www.amazon.com, www.worldcat.org, www.cdbaby.com, www.barnesandnoble.com or other online resource, it would help us if you could copy and paste the URL in the space provided on the form. The URL is the address of the webpage that shows the information about the item and usually appears in a box at the top of your browser.
  
• If you aren’t sure how to do that, or otherwise can’t find the item you want, there is another space where you can give us more information that could help us: where did you hear of the item? When? Useful information includes the television, radio program, or magazine article that discussed it; or listing in a bibliography in a book or magazine. Have you read, heard, or seen this item before? When? What is it about?
  
• Whole issues of magazines that are not in WCLS or BPL cannot be borrowed from other library systems. If you want your library to subscribe to a particular magazine, please talk to the staff at your local library.
  
• If you are requesting a magazine article that is not full text through the online magazine indexes available in our libraries, ask for a Magazine Article Request Form from your local library or call 384-4883. We must have the title of the article, the title of the magazine, the author of the article if that is known, and the date, volume number, and page numbers.
  

  • If you have a bibliography from a book or another magazine article, we need a copy of that bibliography, along with the title of the book or magazine that it appeared in.
    
  • If you recall only the subject of an article, and perhaps the magazine in which you saw it, use the periodical indexes to identify the exact article you want.

What happens after I make a request?

WCLS staff will consider the requested item for purchase, taking into account availability and whether or not it conforms with our collection policy. It may take three to six weeks for an item to arrive if purchased, and sometimes longer for some materials. If not purchased, we will attempt to borrow the item from a library outside Whatcom County via Interlibrary Loan. If we can’t provide you with this item, we will let you know.

• rare old items ;
• very new items;
• highly technical items ;
• items published outside the US;
• some genealogy items;
• items that are difficult to mail: for instance, 33 1/3 recordings, fragile materials; and
• audio-visual materials, such as CD’s or DVD’s.