| • | What is the shadow catalog? |
| • | How do I add a record to the shadow catalog? |
| • | How do I add an entire collection to the shadow Catalog? |
| • | Sometimes I see the “Unavailable for display” message when I search for a shadowed title/copy. Why is this happening? |
The shadow catalog consists of title, call number, and item records that can be searched only by library staff.
The shadow catalog can be used to keep track of items that should not display in any patron search results, but still need to be tracked by the library. For example, a library might want to hide (shadow) records such as lost or missing items, or items being cataloged that are not yet available to the public.
Specifically, the “shadow” property prevents a record from displaying in any search results in the e-Library OPAC or other discovery agent
Shadowed items do not display in a title or author browse search within the WorkFlows client. However, staff can browse by call number for shadowed items.
How do I add a record to the shadow catalog?
Whenever you create or modify a title, call number, or item record, you can choose whether it should be part of the shadow catalog.
| • | If you shadow a title record, all call number records and item records associated with that title will be shadowed as well. |
| • | If you shadow a call number record, all item records attached to it will be shadowed as well. |
| • | If you shadow an item record only that copy is added to the shadow catalog. |
The following table shows where to set the shadow property for each type of record:
|
Record type |
Tab where shadow option is available |
Wizards where the shadow property can be changed |
|
Title |
Bibliographic |
Add Title wizard Modify Title wizard |
|
Call number |
Call Number/Item |
Add Title Wizard Modify Title wizard |
|
Item |
Call Number/Item |
Add Title wizard Modify Title wizard Edit Item wizard |
Since catalog materials can be shadowed at three different levels, there are three possible statuses for a title with respect to shadowing.
| • | The title is completely visible (the title is not shadowed, has no shadowed call numbers, and has no items which are shadowed or currently in shadowed locations). |
| • | The title is partially shadowed (the title is not shadowed, but has at least one shadowed call number or at least one item which is shadowed or currently in a shadowed location). |
| • | The title is completely shadowed (the title is shadowed at the title level, or all of its call numbers are shadowed, or all of its items are shadowed or have a shadowed current location). |
The Search Options helper allows you to set whether you want to search the shadow catalog (YES), the regular catalog (NO), or both.
Partially shadowed titles will always be searched, regardless of the setting you choose in the helper, since they have associated call number or item records in both catalogs.
How do I add an entire collection to the shadow Catalog?
Collections of item records can be shadowed by assigning items to a home location which has the Shadow attribute selected. For example, the location STORAGE can be a shadowed home location. Items assigned to the STORAGE location will be shadowed from the public catalog.
Additionally, groups of bibliographic records can be loaded to the shadow catalog using the Update Title Control Information from Title Information Entry (948) loading option in the Load Bibliographic Records report. If the bibliographic records have 948 tags with a value of Y in the subfield s, these records will load into the shadow catalog. For more information, go to Using the 948 Entry for Date Stamping and Shadowing.
The Item Group Editor wizard allows you to simultaneously edit te properties of a large group of item records, including the shadow property. For more information about using this wizard, see the Item Group Editor Wizard
Note: Changes to the shadow property made in the Item Group Editor wizard will not affect searching until after the Add, Delete, Update Databases (adutext) report runs. The shadow property will display on the record immediately, but a search for shadowed items will not include that record until after the adutext report runs.
For more information about this report, see Add, Delete, Update Databases Report
Sometimes I see the “Unavailable for display” message when I search for a shadowed title/copy. Why is this happening?
In the e-Library OPAC, when a user performs a library-specific search for a title belonging to a specific library, if the only copies at that library are shadowed but there are non-shadowed copies at other libraries, sometimes an entry would still appear in the search hitlist for that title. By default, the entry displayed with the “Unavailable for display” message. Administrators can change a variable in the e-Library environment files to suppress the display of shadowed titles/copies. While this option presents a better display, a shadowed copy could still appear in the search hitlist.
Since Version 3.4, copy-level shadow indexing has been implemented. This indexing marks items as visible only or shadow only. With this change, when a user searches a library or library group, if the search shadow flag is set to NO, then the search hitlist will return hits that contain only visible copies for that library or library group. If the search shadow flag is set to YES, then the search hitlist will return hits that contain shadowed copies for that library or library group. As long as the display shadow flag is set to BOTH or matches the search shadow flag, then the user should not see the “Unavailable for display” message when displaying those search hits.
However, when the display shadow flag is opposite of the search shadow flag (such that one is YES and the other is NO or vice versa) the search can still produce the “Unavailable for display” message depending on the value of the flag and the number of visible and shadowed call numbers. In this instance, the implementation and interpretation of the display shadow flag has not changed.
After a system is upgraded to Version 3.4, the keyword indexes are rebuilt to reflect the new copy-level shadowing indexing. But, even after the databases are re-indexed, it is still possible to see the “Unavailable for display” message until the indexing catches up with the editing of a bibliographic record. Dynamic indexing is fast, and this should not happen often, but there is a timing “window” where the shadow information has not yet been indexed but a user is searching that particular title/copy. Once the indexing finishes, the search will no longer return the “Unavailable for display” message.
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