The Second Floor Librarians

Frustration! by basykes, on Flickr

Why does the library have only one copy of (insert super-popular book title here)?!?

This is a very common question/complaint we get from you, our library users.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. You hear about a new book, say Game Change, by John Heilemann. You search the library’s catalog, and see that apparently we only have only one (1!) copy of the book, when there are fifty-two (52!) holds on it. ARGH!

But don’t fear, library users.  We are more on top of things than our online system shows. Though the public view of the system only shows one copy of that book, we actually have ten additional copies on order.

We run regular reports to find out which titles need additional copies ordered to maintain our holds-to-copies ratio for books. We order additional copies as needed, and when these books arrive, they are prioritized for getting processed and added to the system, filling all those hold requests (in order).

Unfortunately, our online system does not display the additional copies on order, so it can look quite discouraging if you’re number 52 in the holds queue for Game Change.

I hope this helps explain a little bit about what we do here and reassures all of you readers on hold for those books with huge hold queues.

If you ever want to give us feedback about something here at the library, just contact us.

Posted by Lisa, a second floor librarian