Did you know ? : Library delivery service

Did you know ? : Library delivery service

Each and every week day a big green van rolls up to the Merrimac Public Library. Inside are myriad red bins, each containing items that have been pulled from library shelves all over Massachusetts and shipped to our front door. The driver laboriously wrestles the ones addressed to our library onto a handcart and wheels them through our gleaming portals. He then trades the ones he's hauled all this way for the ones we've filled up for him, and are ready to be shipped out. Much shuffling occurs. After that, he wheels them back out to his van, wrestles them into place, and heads off in a cloud of dust to the next library on his route, where he will repeat the process for their bins.

Okay, so maybe this is an overly-romanticized view of the library delivery service, but hey, those guys work hard to get us the books and items we need, so I think they deserve some applause.

Exactly how doesthe mystical and sometimes magical library delivery system actually work? The following is a typical scenario that should give you a better idea (note: this process typically takes 2 - 3 days, though for this scenario it all occurs during the same day):

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The process begins by making a request for an item. (For more on requests, see this post) I think we should request James Patterson's hot new book "134th Bestseller : A whitespace novel". Once the request for the title has gone through, it sits somewhere out there in cyberspace. Meanwhile...

A librarian at the Winequog Public Library runs her library's pull list. The computer that has been hanging on to the request assigns the request to the Winnequog library's copy of the book. The librarian then hunts down the book from the stacks, pulls it from the shelf, and checks it in to the library computer. The computer tells the librarian where to send the book. The librarian affixes a transit slip to the book that shows the destination, and tosses it gently into a red bin.

Around 12:30, the green van rolls up, the driver does his thing, and leaves several red bins behind him. The librarian at that library sighs, and begins to unpack the bins. Meanwhile...

The van containing the bin with the requested book in it arrives at the warehouse. There, the bins are unloaded from the van, the contents unpacked, and the items for our library sorted into one of several waiting bins. Another van rolls up, and the driver loads up the bins destined for stops along his route, one of which is our library. The driver finishes his Dunkin' Donuts, throws the truck into drive, and speeds off down the road. Meanwhile...

We're getting a little impatient waiting for our book; it has been over two hours, after all. We call up the librarian at our library to see what she has to say about this travesty. The librarian informs us that the book is "in transit" and should be here any day now. We say thank, and hang up. Meanwhile...

The driver screeches to a halt outside of our library, knowing full well the importance of the cargo he's carrying. Quickly yet gracefully, he unloads the bins and wheels them in to our library. We say thank you, and he departs. We unpack the bins and begin the check in process on the mountain of stuff. One librarian checks in the copy of the book we've been waiting for, and the computer spits out a little slip telling the librarian who the book is on hold for and how to contact them; we prefer to be contacted by phone because email is far too unreliable and newfangled. After all the items are checked in, the librarian calls our number and tells us that the book is ready for pick up. We throw our stuff and children into the car and race down to the library, very nearly forgetting to bring our library card with us. But like all good patrons, we run back in to the house and grab it from the kitchen table, and with that we're off.

We pull up outside of the library and park in the fire lane; such is our excitement to get our hands on this new bestseller! We race up to the front desk, proudly present our card, the librarian scans it, shuffles over to the hold shelf, grabs the book, shuffles back, checks it out, prints the slip and with THAT... the book is ours!

For three weeks, anyways.

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Okay. So that's essentially how the process works. Again, for simplicity's sake, what usually takes 2 or 3 days has been shortened into one day. At the Merrimac Library, we usually receive our once-daily delivery around 11 - 11:45 AM. This time may vary for your library.

Thanks for reading! Check back soon for more interesting rambling posts.

borrowing library - analogous to the "pickup point"

"the item is in transit" - means that the requested item has left the owning library, but has not yet reached the pickup point

owning library - the library that purchased the item and has it as part of their collection

pull list - a list generated by the library's computer that shows all the items owned by that library that are currently requested by a patron

"pulling" an item - finding a requested item from the owning library's shelves

transit slip - a slip attached to an item(s) sent through delivery that displays the destination of the attached item(s)

Pick-up and delivery service is provided through the Interlibrary Loan system. (NMRLS)

Previous posts in the "Did you know ?" series: Holds and requests