[rracoon01]

I have a rather large wish list of ebooks (300+) and I find myself spending too much time just checking each title to see if it is available to borrow or how many holds are backed up for it. I checked out the Overdrive API website and see that the Library Availability API is just for that purpose. I thought about using this as a project to learn python but qualifying for a developer account did not seem likely, and besides the idea seems best suited for inclusion in the Overdrive Plugin.

The Availability API returns among other things, copies owned, copies available and number of holds for each lending model. Adding these up for all the lending models yields just the info I need. Immediate availability is one thing, but if not available, the number of copies owned and the number of holds yield a guestimate of the time frame that a copy would become available.

I realize that this information would be transient, so I guess the information would need to be date/time stamped. Presumably this would have to be stored in the ODID in the identifiers metadata and a user could readily pick that apart and create a custom column via a template. Again, because it is transient information, the plugin might have a new option like Refresh Availability Information” that would efficiently update just this information using all of the parameters in Customize Plugin dialog box.

I know this would save me a tremendous amount of time and I hope others will support the idea too. To say it would be simple would be naïve on my part but this idea surely should be implemented in the Overdrive Plugin rather than a stand alone plugin. Please give it some consideration.

This plugin is nothing short of magical!