friend I'll never meet
Nov. 3rd, 2021 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
boxofdelightsI use my library's "holds" system a lot. When an item I have put on hold comes in, the librarian prints a bookmark with my initials, sticks the bookmark in the item, and puts it on the "holds" shelf. Then I can pick it up and check it out without ever speaking to another human being.
Books that are on hold for different users with the same initials are all mixed together on the shelf. There must have been a lot of collisions during lockdown, when the only way to get physical objects from the library was through the holds system; but during lockdown it was up to the librarians to retrieve things from the shelf and check them out to you. In normal times, most people don't use the holds system that much.
But there is another user with the same initials as me who puts a lot of things on hold, and quite a few of her things are things I want to read, or have read and liked! (Sometimes I say "Huh?" or "Not worth the time" -- but maybe those holds belong to a third RSE!) This week, her holds were Bewilderment, by Richard Powers, and A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, by Alicia Elliott. Last time they were Future Home of the Living God, by Louise Erdrich, The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalila Harris, and Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro.
I want to invite her to my book group!
Books that are on hold for different users with the same initials are all mixed together on the shelf. There must have been a lot of collisions during lockdown, when the only way to get physical objects from the library was through the holds system; but during lockdown it was up to the librarians to retrieve things from the shelf and check them out to you. In normal times, most people don't use the holds system that much.
But there is another user with the same initials as me who puts a lot of things on hold, and quite a few of her things are things I want to read, or have read and liked! (Sometimes I say "Huh?" or "Not worth the time" -- but maybe those holds belong to a third RSE!) This week, her holds were Bewilderment, by Richard Powers, and A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, by Alicia Elliott. Last time they were Future Home of the Living God, by Louise Erdrich, The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalila Harris, and Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro.
I want to invite her to my book group!
no subject
Date: 2021-11-04 04:04 am (UTC)Collisions are a problem, like you said, but otherwise that system does provide more privacy.
I live near a tiny library branch of a big county library with an extensive collection, so the hold system gets used a LOT. Ours are alphabetized by last name, with the full name on the bookmark slip. I learned a friend's middle name from seeing a hold slip. And I've recognized names near mine occasionally, including an author I'm a fan of!
no subject
Date: 2021-11-06 04:51 am (UTC)It is cool to see what people are reading! That must be one of the perks of being a librarian.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-06 03:12 pm (UTC)