Hold on!

If you're reading our online blog, you're most likely familiar with our online catalog. Some of you may know you can place a hold on any circulating title that Misssoula Public Library owns, or any of our partners, from any Internet connection. But, did you know you can get your hold notice sent to your email address?

By adding an email address to your library account, you'll not only get faster notification when your hold comes in (and save paper), but you'll also get a warning when something you have checked out is going to be due - so you can try to renew it or be sure to return it without accumulating any of those pesky overdue fines. And you don't have to worry about spam - your address will only be used for notifications related to your library record, we don't share any personal information with anyone.

And there's even better news for all those hold-placers out there: you can get your title sent directly to your house. Yup, we'll ship out any hold to your home for a $3 per package fee. So if you live out of town or have odd work hours, you won't risk missing out on a hold because you didn't get into the building soon enough to pick it up. You can put up to $50 on account with us, and we'll only use that money toward your home delivery charges. If you are a low-income or disabled resident, you may qualify for free delivery. Find details on our home delivery services here.

So the next time you want a title set aside for you, hold on!

Tons O' Updates

(Original Photo by Flickr user Xurble. Some Rights Reserved)

If you've been to the library, or you follow this blog, you no doubt know that we've been going through some pretty big changes. I thought I'd take a moment to update you on the progress, or changes to what I've already told you.

In downloadable audio news, the folks at Overdrive have just rolled out a mac version of their media console. Now you mac users can download and listen to audio books on your computer and transfer them to mp3 players. I'm not a mac user, so let me know what problems you encounter and I'll try to find a solution or workaround. Just head over to MontanaLibrary2Go and pick up the player.

In self hold pick-up news, we've changed the way holds will be ordered because of privacy concerns. Now, you can find your holds ordered by the last 5 digits of your library card number. This way, your name isn't associated at all with the items you are checking out, and isn't visible to anyone else. The holds are located past the current check-out desk on the way to the reference desk.

In "Giant Plastic Blob" news, construction is hammering away, sometimes quite literally. They've made a ton of progress as shown here

In behind the counter news, which I haven't yet posted about, here's a look at our new, stainless steel check-in counters. Our Frenchtown branch librarian Heather is seen here testing the new setup and looking for ways to make to make our work more efficient.

And finally, starting today we're trying out a new system of letting you, the patron, help us out a bit by putting kids and young adult books in the right hand slot, and adult books in the left hand slot. You'll see this when we finish our remodel, so we thought we'd just go ahead and start now to get everyone used to it.

Happening RIGHT NOW!

We're in the midst of a huge change in the way things work here at the library. It used to be that when you had a hold on something, you just went to the checkout desk and we grabbed it from the back. Now, you can pick up holds yourselves.

This comes in anticipation of the new self-check out machines that should be coming very soon. In the future, you'll be able to grab your hold and check out without waiting for one of us to help you. This should keep your privacy at a maximum and your time spent in lines to a minimum.

The holds are shelved alphabetically by last name, and we've moved out the holds up to last names starting with "R," but more and more should be going out throughout the day. Each hold slip covers the title and cover of your item so no one but you should know what you have waiting for pick up. We hope to be fully operational with our self hold pick-up system by the end of the weekend. Wish us luck!