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Originally Posted by Catlady
Why was it a disaster? I have no prior experience so I genuinely want to know.
Re library borrowing--since the nominations are supposed to be at least a year old or thereabouts, doesn't that keep wait times down at most libraries? My experience may not be typical, as two of my three library systems are huge and well-stocked, but I've rarely seen a wait time of more than a couple of weeks.
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Participation went down. Whether it was because people were at different stages and so couldn't respond, or because for people who had a harder time getting the book or had to delay for other reasons felt they'd missed the discussions or the salient points had been made, or some combination or other reasons, I don't know. But it didn't go well.
Library availability varies widely. It's given that by waiting somewhat longer to start the discussion, a book is more likely to show up in time. As it is, we've got roughly five weeks after the end of the poll (assuming no tie), so that doesn't allow for being very far down the waitlist, no more than a couple of iterations.
As a practical matter, if the discussion were bumped up a couple of weeks, then we'd be doing that at the same time as the nominations. I think we're better off staggering "events," both to maintain focus on one thing at a time and also to always have something on the boil. I agree that nominating the next book before we've discussed the last one isn't satisfying, but it seems like the least bad alternative given other considerations.