No, not on the phone silly blog reader. I am talking about a library item that is on hold. At my library I have to go up and ask at the desk for it. The nice clerk checks the computer then checks the shelves behind her (I say her because there are no male circulation clerks at my library) and retrieves my item. It makes me happy that my item is there waiting for me. I don’t mind having it retrieved.
In fact when i was at my local library today the clerk next to me was helping an elderly gentleman. He wanted to know what books he had placed on hold. The clerk had to speak loudly so he could hear and it made me glad he only had fiction titles on hold and not nonfiction books on any embarrassing or personal health issues otherwise everyone in line would have known.
The Chicago Public Library has implemented a new hold system where the patrons retrieve their own hold materials by having shelves out in the open. [Read the article]. Of course some of the public are nervous and outraged. I would be too. What’s to stop your neighbor who sees your name on a book to stop and see what you are waiting to read? CPL says its to streamline the hold process. Since when is efficiency paramount to privacy? When I lived in Salem, Oregon the public library did something similar with having the holds accessible to the general public for self retrieval. Needless to say I was not comfortable with this arrangement. I like the fact that I can place a book on hold and have it be held away from prying eyes. If I lived in Chicago and had to deal with this new system I might stop placing holds on books.
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Recently, a new express staffless library branch opened up in King County, WA. Patrons can enter with their library card and pick up their holds. So there is absolutely no privacy there for holds with no staff at all to manage the shelf…
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6710470.html
It’s a shame that they could not use some sort of pickup locker system where your id could open up a locked box that would check the hold out to you as you retrieved the item.
Doreva
I know when the Clinton-Macomb library opened one of their branches they had a locker system in one of their more remote locations. Items that had been put on hold would be put in the bin by library staff and the patron would be notified and given a combination to unlock the locker and retrieve their hold items. So the system you are thinking about is available. It might be prohibitive. Plus, if you really want a “staff less” library it would certainly take more time to put items in the locker versus placing them on a shelf. I do agree that there are problems with having self-serve holds.
At OPL, they have a self-serve hold shelf and they gave some semblance of “privacy” by turning the books spine-in… I don’t think it’s the best solution, but it’s how they reconcile the idea of putting them out in the open.
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