It is not uncommon to lose books in the library. Shelving problems are a natural occurrence, and the library is a vast place.
But the problem was exacerbated by a failure in Duke University Library's online server that occurred Sept. 11, 2005. The concurrent failure of its backup systems caused a loss of library records between July 21 and the crash.
Even now, months later, some students are complaining about regularly seeking books in vain.
"This is a norm," said Sebastian Lukasik, a fourth-year graduate student. "It's tremendously frustrating because I'm a grad student, so obviously I depend on the library. And this is supposed to be a research library."
Edward Gomes, head of information systems support for DUL, explained that data relating to circulation, fines, catalog records and other transactions were all lost in the server glitch. The extent of the loss could not be clearly ascertained, but the library immediately instituted teams to recover data from available sources.
Old transaction logs, outside sources and online interlibrary databases were utilized to determine what ought to be in stock and was not.
"A lot of people worked really hard to clean up the data and reconcile the records with what's on the shelves," said Jean Ferguson, assistant reference librarian.
Most of the library's work to recover from the crash has finished, Gomes said.
"The general sense from the people who are managing the restoration is that the records have been restored... for the most part," he added.
The library worked with students to waive fees that may have been mistakenly charged due to the server failure.
To prevent another failure new hardware and backup systems have been put in place to improve the system, Gomes said.
Every once in a while, Ferguson said, students approach the reference desk to report books they cannot find. She said, however, that the problem has decreased as the year has progressed.
Librarians still comb through the stacks the old-fashioned way when books appear to be missing. But moving the University's collection from Perkins Library-which is undergoing renovations-to Bostock Library has further complicated the shelving of books, students noted.
At this point, missing books are not necessarily related to the server glitch, Gomes said.
"Shelf failure is a problem, and it is an issue that the library is working very hard to eliminate," he explained. "In some cases, because we have open stacks, items are misshelved by patrons."
Ferguson explained that sometimes missing books are not really missing but simply misplaced.
"The whole thing with the library is we have 5 million books," she said. "It's possible to go upstairs and find something is missing, and it's just because someone is using it in another part of the library, or it's on a table somewhere."
While some students complained of constant problems finding books, others noted only minor problems and said they view them as slight inconveniences.
"I've had some minor difficulties finding things," said Travis Simons, a first-year Divinity School student. "It could be from construction or the rearranging of books. I don't see it as such a drastic problem."
Sophomore Joshua Kazdin said he sometimes has difficulty relying on the online catalog. "You go online, it says owned/not-out, and it's not there," he said. "Out of the last five times that I've looked for books, three of them have not been there."
Whatever troubles he and others have faced, however, Lukasik complimented the staff of the library for handling it well.
"They're quite good about clearing up misconceptions and misunderstandings. I've always found them very cooperative and accommodating," he said. "It takes the edge off, somewhat, [of] the inconvenience."
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