Students and faculty may be prevented from placing a MOBIUS request for various reasons. For several common errors and issues, see the circumstances below:
- Why would MOBIUS indicate that a particular video is not requestable?
- Why does it say “Sorry, your ID number is not valid" when I try to place a local or MOBIUS request?
Generally, electronic resources are licensed for authorized users at a specific institution, so links for eBooks at other MOBUS libraries will not work for you as a WashU user.
If you find an eBook record that does not work for you:
- Search again by title or author to see if there is a paper copy at another MOBIUS library. Paper books can be REQUESTED.
- When there is no copy available from MOBIUS, you may submit a request to Interlibrary Loan to borrow the book from another library.
- NOTE: You can request chapter scans from an eBook. Use the Interlibrary Loan form for these requests
Some audio/visual materials in the MOBIUS catalog may be requested, but not all DVDs and CDs are available for delivery to WashU. MOBIUS members are not required to lend their AV materials.
If an item is not requestable in the MOBIUS catalog, submit an ILL request and we will try to borrow it from another library for you.
Some patrons get the following error when placing holds on Wash U or MOBIUS items: “Sorry, your ID number is not valid."
We've worked extensively with University systems staff and the vendor of MOBIUS, and we think we have pinpointed the problem:
- this definitely happens to people who use a dollar sign ($) in their WUSTL Key password.
- Though not yet confirmed, we've heard reports that other special characters, including the period (.), bracket (<), tilde (~), and plus sign (+), have caused the same problem for some patrons.
While we hope the vendor will be able to fix this problem soon, if you have a $ or other special characters in your password, and you get this error when trying to make a local or MOBIUS request, you have two options:
- You can change your WUSTL Key password so that it does not have a $ or the other special characters in it.
- Or, there is a workaround that does not require you to change your password. This workaround only works when requesting through the MOBIUS catalog, not WashU's local catalog.
For workaround information (or additional troubleshooting), please contact the Circulation Department, circ@wumail.wustl.edu or 314-935-5420.
