Manage Holds

How to Manage Library Holds

The only thing I’ve found that I don’t like about Libby is that it’s too efficient.

If three people are waiting for a particular book and the library’s borrowing period is three weeks, Libby will give an estimate of nine weeks as the wait for that book. The thing is, most people return their library books early. So that nine weeks could turn out to be two weeks or some other length of time.

When I am deciding which books to place on hold, I try to space them out. I try to select a variety of books with short hold times and other books with longer hold times. The catch is that you never know how long the hold period will really be.

Invariably, just when you’re really involved in a book, you’ll get a notice from Libby that the book you’ve been waiting for is now available. This is what the notice looks like:

Click on "Borrow" and it will take you to the "You are borrowing [title]" screen. If you need a book right now or if you’re one of those people who likes to have two or more books going at one time, then go for it! All you need to do is click the big "Borrow!" button to borrow the newly available book. 

Note that this screen tells you how many days your borrowing period will be. It also shows a facsimile of the library card for the library from which you're borrowing.

If you're not ready to borrow the book right now, click on the < Your Holds button at the top of the screen. This action will NOT borrow the book and will leave it on your Holds shelf, which looks like this:

 

From here, you can Borrow, Manage Hold, or Deliver Later. 

Click Borrow if you want to Borrow right now. Click Manage Hold if you want to go to the screen where you can Cancel the hold. (It's the "never mind, I don't want it" button). 

Click Deliver Later if you want to borrow this book at some time in the future. This will take you to a screen saying "You are scheduling [title] for later delivery."

The cool thing here is the slider. It defaults to the minimum extension, usually seven days. You can move the slider left and right until you find your desired number of days. 

Keep in mind that this is not a guarantee of when you'll receive the book. It depends on how long the other library patrons keep the book. It's kind of like letting someone go ahead of you in line at the supermarket - but you don't know how many items they have.

If you're happy with the number of days you selected, click "Update Hold!"

That action will take you back to your holds shelf, and it will show the new estimated date.

Library Holds

How to Place a Hold

You can place holds for popular books in the Libby app. When you search for a book on Libby, the search results show you whether the book is immediately available or there is a wait.

Borrow 

This is an example of a book you can borrow immediately. The library card icon has a "plus," which means you can add this book to your shelf of borrowed books. (Note that the library card icon will vary somewhat depending on the library you are using)

If you want to borrow this book, you can either click the word "Borrow" or click on the library card icon. Either will take you to the screen to borrow the book. Be sure to click the big "Borrow!" button. 

The screen will tell you how many days your loan will be good for. It's usually three weeks, but this can vary depending on the library.

You'll be notified shortly before the end of the borrowing period. You can return the book early if you're done with it. If you don't return it or renew it, the book will automatically disappear when the term is up.

Place Hold

This is an example of a book that has a wait. The library card icon has a little clock, which means that there is a wait to borrow this book. 

The icon even tells you roughly how long the wait is! Look carefully at the library card icon for this book and you'll see three dots. At this library, each dot represents about three weeks. This book shows three dots, so the estimated hold time is nine weeks. 

If you want to get on the waiting list for this book, you can either click the words "Place Hold" or click on the library card icon. Either will take you to the screen to place your hold. Be sure to click on the big "Place Hold!" button.

Previous Post: How to Borrow Kindle Books

In the next post, we'll tell you how to get multiple library cards.