Holds: 43 of 151, 10 of 63 and 16 of 32

London Public Library (LPL) has been a lifesaver. The resources, the people, the space and so much more make my trips to any number of branches rewarding. There are, however, one or two things that trouble me. At the moment it is the holds policy.

Recognizing the importance of getting high demand books, DVDs, CDs etc., to eager patrons the LPL, like most other public libraries, let users place holds on items from the collection. LPL policy permits patrons to place a maximum of 40 holds by simply logging on to the website and selecting the title and selecting the branch where you would like to have the book delivered. The library will then email or phone to tell you that the book is available for pick-up. You have a 5-day period to retrieve it. You then have the three-week loan period to enjoy the book.

The problem arises when there are works in very high demand. Yes, patience is a virtue. But when a particularly intriguing title becomes available and there are already 75 holds, one despairs. The title of this entry indicates where my current holds sit in relation to the total holds for three titles. Vincent Lam’s Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures will probably not make its way to my hands for at least 6 months and Richard Dawkin’s God Delusion, already on the hold list for over a month, probably won’t make it to me until well into the New Year. As for Carol Windley’s Home Schooling, I am only half way down the list.

On the scale of terrible things to befall an individual having to wait a few weeks/months is really not that great of a burden. And, it has been a very pleasant surprise to discover that a hold, placed 11 months ago and forgotten, has now become available. On the flip side, discovering that while you were on vacation the hold you placed came and went can be traumatizing. A few changes in the Holds Policies will, therefore, be suggested. As it is each hold represents about four weeks that a book is in the hands of another: three week loan period plus transit time plus grace period for pick up. And this doesn’t take into account the borrower who returns the book late.

One solution would be to buy more copies. Barring that, why not limit borrowing periods on high demand titles to two weeks? And, increase the late fines to the level of DVD fines for high demand titles. A $0.15/day late fine on a book is not much of a disincentive to hold on to a title past its due date. While I am not particularly fond of increased fees for users why not consider a fine placed on books that are not picked up from a hold shelf? Finally, I am sure the technical wizards at LPL can facilitate the ability to suspend a hold while you are going on vacation. By allowing a vacation stop for a hold you will free up the item for access by other patrons and you will allow the original person placing the hold to remain in their place in the queue.

LibraryThing

Creating order in my personal library is something that has remained on my to-do list for many years. With an eye to creating an appearance of design in the chaos of my collection I took the opportunity afforded me by the recent completion of renovations to the house to start anew and reorganize the bookshelves. First, to compile an inventory: “did I really buy three copies of that book?” “Did I borrow that and forget to return it?” Second, I wished to reacquaint myself with some old favourites and to pull out those “must-reads” that were purchased over the years but were assigned to book boxes during moves or the fringes of the collection due to scarcity of reading time. Third, the project would provide the opportunity to impose order and to test out some of the library skills I had recently acquired.

Luckily, I remembered a great piece of social networking software that would help with the project. LibraryThing.com provides one with an easy to use cataloguing tool and lets you share your love of books with a larger reading community. With over 7 million books catalogued and over 100,000 members LibraryThing lets you browse the huge catalogue for your favourite authors. If you enter your own collection, a simple process that involves typing in an author or title or ISBN and finding your book in a list from Amazon.com or the Library of Congress or some other major library –then just “click” to enter -- you can look at collections that are similar to your own to see what someone else might be enjoying. The site will also generate reading suggestions based on what you have in your collection. You can use RSS Feeds or widgets to add random lists of your books to a Blog, just like the one on the right. Members of the community offer reviews and ratings of books and the Zeitgeist Page offers lists such as highest rated authors and most reviewed books.

While the actual physical arrangement of your books on your bookshelves may reflect the unique connections between the books that only you can truly appreciate, LibraryThing.com lets you create virtual order with electronic alphabetically listed authors or titles or genres. And, keyword tags give you the opportunity to sort into any number of categories.

While busily engaged in the process of cataloguing my collection my daughters, ever curious, were drawn by my interest and were themselves immediately hooked on LibraryThing. There are definitely two more avid readers in the house. Maybe there are two more librarians too?

I'm Back: Student in UCLA Library Tasered

For the two or possibly three people who look at this Blog I decided to make an effort to post some stuff I find interesting and to keep you up to date with information on post-library school events. Hopefully, you too will find it interesting. To keep with the theme of the earlier posts, the bits and pieces you find here will be mostly library and/or book related.

Since the last posting I completed my MLIS degree at the University of Western Ontario. It was terrific experience. The best part was meeting some really wonderful people. Now, as I look for full time employment, and I am busying myself with a couple short-term research contracts, I will make a concerted effort to keep this Blog up to date.

The interesting, and horrifying, library news comes from the UCLA Powell Library where, according to Bruins Nation, campus police tasered a student. From the Daily Bruin there is this:

"It was the most disgusting and vile act I had ever seen in my life," said David Remesnitsky, a 2006 UCLA alumnus who witnessed the incident.