Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
The problem is that a 21-day borrow is too long. Most people borrow for the full time and if it's 21-days then they keep it out for 21-days. Most people do not even know that you can return early. 14-days should be the max borrow length given how long the wait lists are getting.
So if you belong to a library that allows 21-days, please tell the librarian you want that backed down to 14-day.
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I'll respectfully disagree. I myself read quickly, and have a reasonable amount of free time to do so, so most of my borrows are 7 day and that is the default borrow time I have set up for my library account. However, not everyone reads that quickly. Further, some books can be quite lengthy and take longer even for a quick reader to get through. Books on history or technical books, for instance.
If I check out a cookbook to try out, I'll usually want the full three weeks to give it a whirl before I decide whether or not I want to buy. On the other hand, for a light 250 page mystery, I never check it out for longer than 7 days. If I'm going for an 800 page history, then I will usually check out for two weeks and return early if I finish before then.
What would be better than decreasing options is to leave the max borrow time in place and available, but change the DEFAULT borrow to 14 days. The trouble is that most people never change the default borrow time for their account and most libraries set the default time to the absolute maximum.
At the same time, libraries should make the fact that books can be returned early MUCH MORE PROMINENT. This info should appear each time on the checkout page, perhaps with a mention to be polite and not keep others waiting longer than necessary once you have finished a read. As is, most libraries have this factoid buried somewhere on a FAQ page that most folks never look at.
I've definitely noticed slower load times for my library's site, hope it will ease up eventually, but with the economy as it is and ebook prices high, I'm not really expecting it.