Overdue
One minor pet peeve about my local library: they’re just about always backed up at circ, so it can take a crazy amount of time to check things in. I’ll return a batch of books, and it generally takes 3-4 days for the last of them to clear off my record. This is bad, in that it’s conditioned me not to worry until a book is 5-6 days overdue… and accruing fines… before it occurs to me I’d better look for it.
Last night, I found 2 overdue books buried in the bottom of the wrong tote bag — somehow I threw them in there instead of into the “library” tote bag. Halfway to the library to return them, I realized I was probably spending more on gas to make the extra trip than if I just let fines accrue until our regular trip on Saturday. Oh well. I feel like such a responsible library patron, now. It’s been 2.5 years since I’ve worked in a library, and I still itch to get into that staff interface to the ILS…
Bob Watson:
I’d count this a *major* pet peeve … that library is losing circ by keeping things off its shelves. In my view, items should be back on shelves within 12 hours and items should be checked in ASAP, certainly within a couple of hours after staff are able to get to them.
(I suppose this is one argument in favor of RFID.)
19 November 2007, 11:32 am