In Transit
I still take out some books from the Library in paper form when I can’t get them digitally and don’t want to buy them. It keeps my wrists strong since I have to hold up the heavy book instead of the light kobo. Haha.
One thing that always strikes me as odd is how long books spend in “In Transit” state. Really, I’ve had books spend 2+ weeks in transit. Come on folks, I know Toronto is big, but it’s not like the book is getting walked between branches… or is it? Does the book take vacation before it’s free to be taken out again? Are deliveries to a given library on a weekly (monthly?) basis?
Any other theories?
August 18th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
In transits quick in my world…. it’s the “on order” that drives me batty. Takes them months to bring in a new book… but according to my librarian.. head office thinks that’s just “ok”… sigh…
August 18th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Next on my to-do list is to figure out how I can *request* a book from the library. I’d love if I could help influence the next e-books they’re going to pick up!
August 19th, 2010 at 8:18 am
Do you order your books online?? On our site there’s a button to “request material”. Then you can request “to order” or “ILLO”. I request “to order” regularly and quite often I’ll find them on my holds list… but like I said they take MONTHS to actually arrive in the system.
There is an ebook link, and now we had an audio book one. Since I’ve never tried either… and suspect it’s Prov wide… check their home page and they may need to set up the passwords for you. Have you started downloading books from non-kobo sources – I need to download Calibre to change the epubs. It’s on my “when the kids go back to school list”.
Also, you can order through ILLO on your own and have them sent to your home branch. Again, they need to set it up for you – library card and password – but I use it daily to find books.
August 19th, 2010 at 8:26 am
After a silly amount of time clicking around the TPL website, I finally found a policy about material selection in the Terms and Policy section:
7. Customer Requests
1. Library users may place formal requests for the purchase of collection materials by completing a form provided by the Library.
2. All suggested purchases are reviewed by Library staff who apply to the customer request the same selection criteria that are applied to all materials purchased by the Library.
3. The originator of a request will be notified of the Library’s selection decision.
A button would be infinitely better – especially for the digital collection which is really pretty small right now. You’d think they’d want to be acquiring the titles folks want to read first!!