Be Not Discouraged when Placing a Hold Request

Every once in a while we hear from patrons concerned about the large number of people waiting in line for a particular title. For instance over 100 people may have a hold request in for the latest John Grisham book.

I want to alleviate those worries by reminding our patrons that the catalog they are looking at is for 24 libraries in Berks County. Sometimes it is true that not all libraries have a copy of a book (that is why it is great that we share one catalog and are willing to loan books between libraries). Sometimes each library has at least one copy in their collection and often when it is a popular author such as Grisham or Janet Evanovich most libraries will have more than one copy in their collection. 

Therefore, if while placing a request, the information appears saying you are number 76 in the line of people waiting for a title you should remember that the 76 will be spread out over quite a few copies owned by many different libraries. 

Here's another tip:

If the title has the status of NEW in the section of the record showing which libraries own it, then when you place your request be sure to place it on the copy at the library location where you want to pick it up. Again, if the title is NEW (just recently published)... you can only pick up a NEW title at the libraries that own it, so be careful when requesting NEW titles. Be sure the library you are willing to go to has a copy in their collection and that you place a request on that library's copy.