For as long as they’ve existed, drop-in titles have been something of a nuisance to catch and track.

What is a Drop-in Title?

Essentially, these are titles that did not make it into a publisher’s regular seasonal catalog, whether because of a timely political issue, an unfortunate death of a notable public figure, a hold-up in the editorial process, or any number of other delays or timely concerns. These books are easy to miss simply because they can come at any time—the day after a publisher’s seasonal catalog is posted, or just three weeks before publication. If no one gives you a heads up, your knowledge of the existence of these titles is either left to chance or (all too often) to a patron shocked that you don’t have it in available.

The Catalog Subscriptions tool in Edelweiss is a simple way for you to receive an alert when a publisher adds new titles to catalogs you’ve already viewed.

To subscribe to a catalog:

Step One is to select Subscribe while working in a catalog, as shown below.

That action will tell Edelweiss to track your activity for this catalog, essentially just noting when you last looked at it, starting the day you subscribe. (Once you’ve subscribed to a catalog, you’ll see an option to Unsubscribe in that space).

On your homepage, you can add a widget that shows all catalogs you’ve subscribed to with newly added titles:

On your Catalogs page, you’ll also find a section for catalogs with recently added titles. The list will include an indicator of how many newly added titles each catalog contains:

Clicking on that numbered indicator will show you JUST those new titles, with a Catalog Subscriptions filter set for the catalog to facilitate this limited title view. You’ll see a message like this:

Click on “Click here to view the entire catalog” to…as you may have guessed, view the entire catalog.

Note that when you click in to see just those newly added titles, your Last Viewed date associated with the catalog will be automatically updated to today.

So, to recap: You subscribe to a catalog, and if the publisher adds titles to it since you last looked at it, you’ll receive a simple alert on the site. Then, just click through to see those new titles and take whatever action they require…whether that’s adding them to an order, tagging them, or simply ignoring them is up to you.

Tip: You can also subscribe to Collections — your own, your colleagues’, and those that have been shared with you.