Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
I like how Ohio has gone the consortia route for many of their libraries. Washington still prefers the standalone system.
|
I go both ways with this. The Ohio Digital Library used to be two smaller (consortium) libraries. When they combined, the lines became ridiculous. I tend to sign on later at night (work 11-8 or 9 most days), so even if I check for books that were added the morning before, I might find there are already 70+ people in line to read the book! And this system doesn't buy extra copies when the lines are long...maybe one more copy, but otherwise no.
Cuyahoga County, being a standalone, has ebooks that none of the other three do. I don't know if it's still true, but I know at least at one time, at least one of the big agency publishers wouldn't allow their books to be in consortium libraries, only standalones.
And whoever their buyer is pre-orders many books like 6 months in advance! Luckily, they allow 75 holds, so you can tie up some of your list with long-term holds and still be able to get some books sooner. I've had 50+ books on hold at times, with most of the list being long-term holds.
CLEVNET allows 999 holds! I don't think I've ever had it up to more than 25.
They tend to buy multiple copies of books, so I don't tend to have to wait too long (or even at all). Any Ohioans out there speak Russian? CLEVNET buys quite a few Russian-language ebooks (can't tell you the genres much, although the last bit seemed to be mostly romance and some classics - e.g., Nora Roberts [Нора Робертс] and Jack London [Джек Лондон].
) My Russian is way too rusty to get beyond recognizing author names and the occasional word.