Research Guides
When you look at your request history, you may notice that the materials have item statuses. These statuses are updated in real time and will show you what is happening with your request at any given time.
The Awaiting Request Processing status means that you've successfully submitted the request! When an item has this status, it means that we've received your request, but have not yet retrieved it.
You probably won't see this status often, but if you do, it means that a staff member is actively looking at your request! We review every request that comes in to ensure that we have sufficient information to retrieve your request. We also may make some minor changes to the information in the request so that we can gather accurate statistics about collection usage.
Items that are awaiting user review have not been requested and will not be retrieved. Saving items to review is like creating a wishlist of items that you want to look at later - it's there for you, but we can't do anything with it until you submit it! To figure out how to do that, look at the page titled "Your Special Collections Request System Account."
This status means that we've printed out the call slip to retrieve it.
Item with this status are on hold and waiting for you.
This means that you're currently looking at the item!
Once you've finished with the item, we mark it as awaiting reshelving. This clears up a spot in your request queue so that you can request more items.
This item has been returned to the shelf.
Sometimes researchers request materials on microfilm. However, we don't actually have microfilm readers in Special Collections! When this happens, we put the material on hold for you in our Government Publications, Microforms and Newspapers (GMM) department. This status means that the reel(s) are waiting for you in GMM.
Occasionally, researchers may request something that we're not able to provide. This can happen for a few reasons - for example, something may be restricted, it may be too fragile and need preservation work, or we simply may not have enough information to retrieve it for you. When this happens, check your email - we will have sent you a message letting you know what happened so you can plan your next step!