Some vendors accept electronic book orders, and are very quick to send out the books.
Other orders have to be typed and sent via the mail, and sometimes the particular book is not currently in stock. This can really delay things, and some books take months to reach the shelves. As of September 1995, a brief record is entered into Polycat when a book is ordered. The record will have a message field indicating when it was ordered and for which department or collection. After the book is received in the Library, the message will change to indicate that it is being processed.