Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
While I understand the frustration in regard to having a bunch of books become available all at once, it seems to me that once you allow for "time-shifting" that you start encouraging what I'll call "front-loading," adding anything and everything to your holds list without regard to when you'll actually have time to read them. This would tend to made waitlists longer for those not so quick off the mark. I think there's less of an argument for time-shifting now that you can manage your holds list; if all of a sudden you're next in line for several books you can suspend some holds. It doesn't mean you can't be blindsided as others suspend holds making your turn sooner than expected, but it helps.
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It's almost impossible to figure out, though, at least for new books, which are the ones I generally put on hold. One reason is that the library will often buy multiple copies of a book once there's a long wait list--I was something like 60 on a book recently for one copy, then the library bought some 14 more copies.
There's also the situation of recommending books; you might do that months before and then suddenly the library purchases a half-dozen of them at once and they're on your hold list.