diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/directives/IndividualShortViewDirective.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/directives/IndividualShortViewDirective.java
index 981bafbf7..9de08a139 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/directives/IndividualShortViewDirective.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/directives/IndividualShortViewDirective.java
@@ -82,6 +82,11 @@ public class IndividualShortViewDirective extends BaseTemplateDirectiveModel {
 		VitroRequest vreq = new VitroRequest(
 				(HttpServletRequest) env.getCustomAttribute("request"));
 		ShortViewService svs = ShortViewServiceSetup.getService(ctx);
+		if (svs == null) {
+			log.warn("ShortViewService was not initialized properly.");
+			return;
+		}
+		
 		TemplateAndSupplementalData svInfo = svs.getShortViewInfo(individual,
 				svContext, vreq);