Hello,

I think it's a great system if you have little time for purchasing and a
budget that can support your patrons' reading habits.

Bangor Public Library participated in PPU for about six months, but
ultimately decided that it wasn't a good fit for us. We were hitting our
spending cap early in the month and if I didn't turn off the PPU, patrons
could continue to place holds on items that wouldn't be available until the
beginning of the next month. When the first of the month came, the holds
from the previous month would eat up the budget in the first day in the new
month. There was also a UX issue where the "available now" filter would
show the 3k PPU titles in the available list, but they couldn't actually be
borrowed because of the spending cap. Also, turning off the PPU aggravated
patrons because the holds they placed "disappeared" until I turned it back
on. Ultimately, we were fielding patron questions, concerns, and
frustration on a daily basis and decided that the staff time would be
better spent purchasing titles with the PPU budget.

That's not to say that this won't be a great fit for your library, but this
particular lending model wasn't right for BPL. The Bibliotheca support team
were responsive to our requests and suggestions and I'm glad that we
piloted the PPU here, it just wasn't a "set it and forget it" solution.

Please reach out directly if you have additional questions.

Cheers,
Meg


On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 5:45 PM Karen Eger <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Hello,
>
> We are looking to add this service.  Does anyone have any experience to
> share about how it has worked in their libraries?
>
> Karen McCarthy Eger
> Library Director
> she/her/hers
>
> South Berwick Public Library
>
>
> 27 Young Street
> South Berwick, ME 03908
>
> 207-384-3308
> www.southberwicklibrary.org<http://www.southberwicklibrary.org>
>


-- 
Meg Gray, MLIS
Head of Reference Services
Bangor Public Library
145 Harlow Street
Bangor, ME 04401
207-947-8336 x129
207-922-6066 (direct)
pronouns: she/her/hers