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Have you ever placed a hold on a book you know is available at our library only to find yourself waiting for it to arrive in transit from Pittsfield? Did you then find yourself screaming internally as you drove to the library to pick up the copy sitting innocuously on our shelf and have us cancel the hold? Whenever this happens, it leaves all of us politely inquiring why.
The CWMARS network runs on Evergreen. Think of Evergreen like the Force from Star Wars--it surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the libraries together. Whenever you place a hold on something, Evergreen tries to make sure you get it as fast as it can. How does it do that? Please allow this simple, easy-to-read, jargon-free chart to explain:
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And there you have it! I'm sure it all makes sense now...
...
Just kidding. I know you love reading this stuff, so I'll keep going. When you place a hold, it's like throwing your request into a pot. On our end, there is an action we can run on our computers called "running the pull list," where we reach into the pot and pull out requests that match items we have available. We can then print the list, pull the items off the shelves, and scan them. If they fill a local hold, they'll go on our hold shelf. If they fill a hold somewhere else, they'll go into delivery.
If the item you requested is available here, it will appear on our pull list as long as we print it out within the next 48 hours, which isn't a problem. Libraries typically run their pull lists twice a day: once in the morning and once in the afternoon. COVID has led to an increase in frequency because there are a number librarians out there who are a bit more bored than usual, but that is beside the point.
The problem, in this instance, has been with "opportunistic capture." What happens if it looks to Evergreen like we aren't trying hard enough, but someone elsewhere returns a perfectly good, identical copy that is otherwise unspoken for? People are returning books all the time, and those book either go onto the shelves where they were returned, go home to their owning libraries, or continue along to fill more holds.
Until today, opportunistic captures have operated on a 24 hour timer. That means if you placed your hold and we had not printed our list, pulled the item, checked it in, and put in on the hold shelf within 24 hours, it became eligible to be filled by returns. There are two days we week we aren't open (Fridays and Sundays). We obviously aren't checking our pull list when we are closed, so that has left us with two time periods in which our holds have been historically vulnerable to be opportunistically captured even though we have available copies (8pm Thursday through 9am Friday and 1pm Saturday through 9am Sunday).
So let's say you were browsing our catalog online one lovely Saturday evening while petting your ferret in front of a nice fire drinking a glass of eggnog when you happened upon the perfect book available at the library. "I'll just place a hold on it now and pick it up on Monday during my mid-morning constitutional," you say to yourself before retiring for the evening at 8:00.
The next day, someone finishes a copy of the very same book and returns it to the book drop in Pittsfield. As the clock chimes 8 on Sunday evening, that copy languishing in a book drop 83 miles away becomes just as eligible to fill your hold as the one nestled on on the Library shelf 5 doors down. Tick tock. Now it's a race. Both libraries open at 9 on Monday morning, but both libraries empty their book drops before printing their pull lists. As soon as the the book passes under Pittsfield's scanner, BOOM! That item is reserved for you, goes in a transit bin, and when we print our pull list we never even see your name...
Until now! Starting today, the opportunistic capture timer has been set to 48 hours instead of 24 so that ought not happen anymore. :) Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks for Reading
Justin Snook
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December Book Clubs
The Scifi Book club will be talking about Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson on December 5 at 10:00 AM.
The Greatest Book Club Ever will be talking about Me Before You by Jojo Moyes on December 10 at 6:30 PM.
Young Readers Club will be meeting on December 15 at 4:00 PM (book yet to be determined).
The Book Wizards will meet on December 17 at 4:00pm (book to be determined at the next meeting on November 19).
ZOOM details for all book clubs can be found on the Library website's google calendar.
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Friends of the Library Fall Online Auction
After Action Report
In case you didn't see it in the papers:
Every year, the Friends of the Simon Fairfield Public Library host an annual book sale during Oktoberfest in Douglas, MA. It is always the biggest event of the year and brings in donations that help fund Library programs, community outreach and much, much more. Due to COVID, there was no Oktoberfest this year. The Friends still wanted to do something, though. The idea of a socially distanced book sale was briefly floated and sunk. Anything physical was just too risky. With so much happening online already, though, what’s left that can get people excited? The Friends were brainstorming this one Saturday morning on Zoom when Ellie Chesebrough had a grand idea.
Ironically, the idea for an online auction didn’t start with books. The thought was to gather donations of items from local craftspeople, businesses, and individuals to place for bid and then have those items available for pickup at the Library. It wasn’t until after the fact that it occurred to someone to make bundles of books to add as auction lots in lieu of the Oktoberfest book sale, start the auction on the date Oktoberfest would have been, and call it the Fall Online Auction.
Spearheaded tirelessly and relentlessly by Donna Kmetz, local library super-patron, the Friends created an online auction website and began soliciting donations with the help of Paul Peterson, Bettina Simpson, and many other volunteers. As word got out, it seemed almost everyone who got wind of the auction had something they wanted to put in. It became a wonderful community showcase for our local merchants, talents, and pure generosity from all who contributed and bid. In a matter of weeks, the Friends accumulated an impressive catalog of 219 items from 55 total donors: gift certificates, antiques, vacation rentals, folk art, book bundles, golf rounds, and more!
The auction started October 3. In 11 days, 103 people registered to bid, 502 bids were placed, and the Friends of the Library ended up netting $10,197.00 in high bids! The Friends are going to donate all the proceeds from this auction into the Douglas Library’s interest-bearing building fund, where it will bring the Library ever closer to its goal of handicap accessibility. This won’t be the last auction, though. Many people heard about this one too late, and there are already people offering items to go in “the next one.” So stay tuned! And thank you to everyone who donated and everyone who placed bids. You can still donate to the Friends of the Library’s building fund at mysfpl.org/friends.
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Music & Movement
Deb Hudgins continues to entertain and inspire with her musical storytimes. Email me back if you want to get these links weekly! Here are the Music and Movements you haven't seen if you aren't on the weekly list:
This program is sponsored by the YMCA Family & Community Partnership (YFCP), which offers free programs for families with children, ages infant up to age 8. To receive weekly emails about YFCP programs (virtual at this time), visit www.theyfcp.org and register your family at “Join YFCP”. The YFCP is funded by the Massachusetts Coordinated Family & Community Engagement (CFCE) Grant and awarded to the YMCA of Central Massachusetts by the Department of Early Education and Care.
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Brought to you by the Friends of the Simon Fairfield Public Library. |
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