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By Joanna

overdue.jpgEditor’s Note: Joanna has been known up ’till now on these pages as ficbot. PB.

I am delighted that my library seems to be back in the e-acquisitions again. Following a short stagnant period where I thought they were done with Overdrive but it turned out they were just pausing to switch over to epub, new titles are popping up bi-weekly or so and the collection is growing. Aside from the obvious ‘book any time I want’ aspect, there is another benefit to e-library stuff: no more lost library books. They just expire and go poof when they’re ready! And no more snafus like the one I am going through right now with my library.

Here is what happened: I took out a bunch of stuff. I returned it. I am 100% sure I did, because shortly after I returned them, I moved. So my whole house got torn up, every nook and cranny exposed, every single item gone through and packed up by hand. There is no way those library books where in there. They were returned, final answer. But somehow, one of them did not get processed back correctly on their end.First, I got an overdue notice. I assured them I had returned it and they waived the free, then put a six-month hold on it. When a patron insists they returned an item not in the system, that is their procedure. They flag it and do a search and give it six months to turn up again anywhere in the library system.

Well, my six months are up and they didn’t find it. So I have now received a bill for $18 to replace this item. If it had not been for my move, I would feel okay about this. There would be that niggling doubt that it is in my home somewhere. But there is no question; I returned it, it didn’t get processed correctly, and now nobody knows where it is and I am out $18. Unfair, but when one’s business is the tracking of physical objects, I suppose the last known borrower is stuck in cases like this one.

Now, compare my experience with ebooks—several hundred available and growing, and they work just like paper in the getting of them. You search, and you can check it out right away, or place a hold and get emailed when it’s available. Then you just download, read and enjoy. When you are done, there is no physical object to dispense with, and no $18 if anything happens…

 
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