A little over a week ago, I decided to put a book on hold through my local county library system, since my city library did not have the book at all. I was ninth on the waiting list. Then, because I knew I’d be heading to downtown Cleveland soon, I checked the Cleveland Public Library’s holdings, and lo and behold! not only do they have the book, but it is on the shelf and available! So I place a hold. The next day I get an email telling me the book is reserved and waiting for me at the pick-up window, get here within 10 days.
So I do. I leave early for work, go to the drive-thru, and the disembodied voice tells me the book isn’t available, but I’m first on the list.
WTF? I ask the voice to check again, because they sent me the email, after all. The voice says sorry, not available. So being the smart-aleck that I am, I asked the voice “how will I know when it is really available, if your email lies to me?” The voice says, “all I know is you are first on the list.”
I drove off, all angry, because now I have no book to read at lunch, and I was really looking forward to this book (the second effort of a very funny author I discovered through the Dope). Now I will probably have to wait through nine other people through the county library system, because I’m not going downtown again for a while, and they are not going to fool me into making the drive twice. I bet the reserve hold librarian flipped through the book while she was processing it and found it so funny she’s reading it on her lunch break.
I check my account online at home and sometimes it does show that a certain book has arrived.
Then when I go, they can’t find it.
Thats why I always have it sent to my local library branch.
A Certain Chemistry, by Mil Millington. His first book, Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About is hysterical. His website was a link in a thread here and it was so incredibly funny that I bought the book the first day it was out here in the US. It is www.milmillington.com, and worth the time to read or print out.
Kittenblue, has your library told you about MORE? It’s a program started in the last year that sends books all over the state. MORE stands for Moving Ohio’s Resources Everywhere and IMHO is one of the best things to come out of the Ohio library system in ages. If your library is a member you’ll be able to request materials from all over the state and, in my experience, they’ve come quicker than most other holds. (however, if your library carries the book in question, they may not let you hold from another library…but then again, they may. )
Here is a link for the site. You’ll need your library card number and the password/PIN is whatever you make up.
Beyond MORE, the Cuyohoga County library system is part of OhioLink now, so you could also borrow from academic libraries if there is a copy available. (I wasn’t able to get into the OhioLink catalog right now to see if anyone has the book, but books actually come in fairly quickly with it.)
Thanks for the two above links. This book isn’t that important to have to shuttle it across the state, but it’s nice to know about the options. Tomorrow morning I’m going to call the library and talk to another Disembodied Voice and ask what went wrong here. This is really the first time ever a hold hasn’t been actually held.
Our library makes a point of noting that it may actually take a day or two for a requested book to appear on the requests shelf after it is listed as received. The status changes to “received” when the book is physically transferred to your local branch, but it still needs to be processed by the librarians before you can actually take it out.
On a related note, I remember reading Millington’s stuff on his Website a while ago, and kittenblue inspired me to check the library’s online catalogue. I have just ordered both books. I am numbers 1 and 13 on the lists.
Yeah, but the HAPLR (Hennen’s American Public Library Ratings ), while interesting, are not meant to be taken as gospel. I don’t fall on either side of the debate, but there was some interesting discussion on the PUBLIB (public libraries) Listserv about what those ratings actually measure and whether it’s an accurate measurement.
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