On March 2, 2021, Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that they would stop publishing and licensing 6 titles.
- And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
- If I Ran the Zoo
- McElligot's Pool
- On Beyond Zebra!
- Scrambled Eggs Super!
- The Cat's Quizzer
This news has caused an increase in holds being placed on these titles within SWAN libraries. The 2nd/3rd market prices for these titles are soaring. Libraries are making individual decisions on how to circulate these titles in the future, and many libraries have pulled these items to make them available for in-library use only. However, several of these six titles may be in circulation and in transit.
To assist libraries in the process of locating where these items are within the consortium, a BLUEcloud Analytics report -Seuss Size Item Status - is available. Select your library from the page-by drop-down list.
SWAN has put together the following actions if you want to retain these titles in your library as you assess longer-term circulation and hold policies.
- If item is in the library, check out the item to an in-house generic account.
- If items appear on Pull List, check with supervisor how to handle.
-
If item is currently checked out (Status = CHECKEDOUT) and you wish to stop holds placement:
- Modify item type to REF_BOOK, (non-holdable throughout SWAN)
- Upon checkin, it will return to owning library
-
If item is in transit (Status = INTRANSIT), it will trap the hold for the waiting patron at the destination library.
- Place a copy level hold on your item and select checkbox to make first in queue.
- After patron returns the item, next checkin will route to owning library.
- Once home, modify the item type to REF_BOOK
- We recommend that you do not modify item price. Past experience with increasing item price to match 2nd/3rd party prices creates difficult real-life use damage/losses when items are shared with patrons outside the home library.
Once the item is back home, your library can make the decision of how you wish to circulate and provide access in the future. Youth services staff will likely want to discuss internally how to handle these items within their library's collection. Libraries will want to monitor the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom blog for any guidance.
