Do you know what would be totally freakin' awesome?

[lokicarbis]

Imagine that your library's reservation system worked more like Netflix. Which is to say, imagine that:

• You could reserve literally hundreds of books at a time.
  
• You could control where they were ranked in the queue, including being able to specify the ranking in the queue for any new reserves you made (which would insert there, and push whatever

Comments

[drjon]

That would be a marvellous idea...

But would you be willing to pay the same fees and charges as NetFlix for Books?

[lokicarbis]

Up to a point, but as I understand it, a lot of Netflix charges have to do with the mailing to and fro, which is not a feature of this model.

One thing I would add, which no library I know of does, is a fine for reservations not collected.

[drjon]

So their profit model is based on their P&P charges?

[lokicarbis]

That I do not know.

But like I pointed out above, I'm not really asking for anything more than additional processing time and storage space for tasks that, for the most part, modern lilbrary systems do already.

Hell, make it a premium service and charge a small annual fee for it, even. It would more than pay for itself.

[drjon]

Would you mind if I passed this on to a friend of mine who's currently working in Library Infrastructure, for comment?

Actually, how about if I tweet it, too?

[lokicarbis]

Not at all - I wanted to attract comments, that's why this post isn't friend-locked.

[drjon]

Some systems already provide these functionalities, but they're for housebound customers, and the biggest issue with implementing them would be $$$ for development by the service providers who supply the software.

Money is always always always tight in Libraries. There's never enough, and if most of it isn't going on actual books, then the pollies who hold the purse-strings get out the knives.

If you want to see these implemented, convince the pollies and convince the software developers. Librarians would love them.

And yes, you'd have to be prepared to foot the bill. Like I said, would you pay the same fees and charges as for NetFlix? If not, then forget it.

(And no, it's not as simple as sitting down and writing new software which the Libraries will happily swoop up. This will not happen.)

[lokicarbis]

I was going to write a lengthy post arguing with you, but I think instead it would be better for both of us if I instead wrote a second draft incorporating the feedback and addressing the concerns that the first one provoked.

I look forward to your comment on that version :)

[drjon]

Wrote a few comments, and then my browser crashed.

The gist: don't see what there is to argue with. Nothing there is opinion, it's all fact. Convince the pollies, you'll get your NetBooks. Don't, you won't. There just aint the money to do it otherwise.

I guess I'll see when you make your post.