Explain the Libby drama to me

[Anonymous]

I'm seeing quite a bit of drama around how Libby is changing their process for suspending or delaying book delivery and I don't quite get what the fuss is about. It doesn't really seem much different to me except that you can't keep a book suspended for more than a year and I guess you used to be able to (really, can't you just leave it in your wish list and request it when you're closer to wanting to read it??).

Anyway, am I not understanding some sort of change that I'm going to be really upset about??

[Anonymous]

I think it’s because they made a change to the hold system without any explanation. There’s always been a “suspend hold” option at any time a book is on hold, but there was also an option when a book is ready to be checked out to delay for a chosen number of days. I had a couple of books come available a couple of days ago and I went to delay for a week, and the option was gone. I didn’t know what it meant to “suspend hold” once I’d already gotten notice that the book that the book was available.

I’m not sure whether the change is positive or not, but I think removing a popular option (at least I’m assuming it’s popular, I know I use it a lot) without any explanation probably led to some complaints.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s because they made a change to the hold system without any explanation. There’s always been a “suspend hold” option at any time a book is on hold, but there was also an option when a book is ready to be checked out to delay for a chosen number of days. I had a couple of books come available a couple of days ago and I went to delay for a week, and the option was gone. I didn’t know what it meant to “suspend hold” once I’d already gotten notice that the book that the book was available.

I’m not sure whether the change is positive or not, but I think removing a popular option (at least I’m assuming it’s popular, I know I use it a lot) without any explanation probably led to some complaints.

+1 I was so confused this week when I tried to select the deliver later option.

[Anonymous]

They explained it quite well on their instagram account. Drama is from people who hate change. They’re the same people who lose their minds when one feature moves in Goodreads.

[Anonymous]

I've delayed holds many times but if it's a year, yeah, just remake the hold. Or accept you aren't that interested in that book. You can use the tags to keep lists of books you want to read eventually.

[Anonymous]

It was kind of a relief, I have so many books on hold 😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s because they made a change to the hold system without any explanation. There’s always been a “suspend hold” option at any time a book is on hold, but there was also an option when a book is ready to be checked out to delay for a chosen number of days. I had a couple of books come available a couple of days ago and I went to delay for a week, and the option was gone. I didn’t know what it meant to “suspend hold” once I’d already gotten notice that the book that the book was available.

I’m not sure whether the change is positive or not, but I think removing a popular option (at least I’m assuming it’s popular, I know I use it a lot) without any explanation probably led to some complaints.

+1 I was so confused this week when I tried to select the deliver later option.

I was too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They explained it quite well on their instagram account. Drama is from people who hate change. They’re the same people who lose their minds when one feature moves in Goodreads.

This assumes 1. People are on Instagram/social media (many people are actively stepping away from it) and 2. That you follow what mcpl on Instagram

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They explained it quite well on their instagram account. Drama is from people who hate change. They’re the same people who lose their minds when one feature moves in Goodreads.

Yeah, I'm not on instagram and if I was I certainly wouldn't be following Libby.

[Anonymous]

Ok, so I got the Libby notice. But it didn’t say much. Which insta account do I have to follow to figure out what to do?

[Anonymous]

Does the Instagram post explain why they did it? Not sure it’s bad—I just don’t real understand the point.

[Anonymous]

I saw somewhere (maybe reddit) that, under the old system, the time period when a book becomes available to you and when you decide to either check it out or delay delivery was really slowing things up. Even though it was only something like 2-3 days to decide, the book isn't moving during that time and surprisingly it meant that almost 50% of book copies were sitting unused at all times in this holding pattern.

By switching to this "suspend" system it takes out some of that and should make books move from person to person faster. Doesn't make complete sense to me, but I think I get it.

[Anonymous]

My separate question is if I'm messing things up for others by leaving my kindle in airplane mode? In that case the book does not return when it is supposed to. Is it considered "returned" anyway and able to move on to the next person, or do I need to be better about turning the wifi on and returning books on time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My separate question is if I'm messing things up for others by leaving my kindle in airplane mode? In that case the book does not return when it is supposed to. Is it considered "returned" anyway and able to move on to the next person, or do I need to be better about turning the wifi on and returning books on time?

No, I don’t believe you are messing things up for others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My separate question is if I'm messing things up for others by leaving my kindle in airplane mode? In that case the book does not return when it is supposed to. Is it considered "returned" anyway and able to move on to the next person, or do I need to be better about turning the wifi on and returning books on time?

I do this too. I think that the book does return to the library, it just doesn't remove it from your kindle.