Nowadays, lots of libraries link up to loan each other books. For the library user, that means if your local library doesn’t have that book, you can request it anyway. In a few days, that book will be shipped to your local library from the library that has that book in their collection. Thus, the library user now has access to books from many libraries. Big smile here! Then reality sets in. You have to wait days before you get your hands on that book to find if it actually contains the information or story that you want. If not, then more days of waiting to try again. It’s a great excuse for your local library not to have that book in the local collection since you can always request it. When you do request it, the result is sometimes “Sorry, no copies available for requests.”. That is because you are now competing for that book not with just the users of your local library, but also the users of all those other libraries. Unlike database information, that book must spend part of its time in transit, during which nobody gets to read it. The library is not likely to add more copies of that book if it is wanted mostly by users of other libraries. Seldom is there any attempt to keep the book in the library closest to most of those people that want it. The tradeoff made by libraries that do this is the resources spent to make these loans possible is cheaper than buying all those books to which access is gained. Unfortunately, sometimes that access is just to the message ”Sorry, no copies available for requests.”.
Another Library has That Book…
Advertisement
