How many times has this happened to you? It’s morning. You’re sitting at the table by the window, dressed in your bathrobe, drinking coffee and eating buttered toast. You’re reading the newspaper. The article mentions a band or a book or a movie. You pull up the library’s catalog, find the thing and try to put it on hold. But first you need to find your library card. It’s somewhere in your wallet or maybe that desk drawer. Man, why does your account have to be a gazillion digits long? Somehow, you manage. You read on. More names are dropped. These remind you of other names. You place hold after hold. Before you know it, your account is filled up. If only there was a way to create lists in your library account “for later!” You’re shaking from the caffeine. Time to get dressed.
The days go by, as they do, and you begin to get emails from the library notifying you that there are items ready to be picked up. Sweet! You swing by, go to the hold shelf, and run a 
finger along the white slips of paper until… Blarg! There’s a lot of stuff for you. I mean, a-lot-of-stuff. It’s like Christmas exploded there on the hold shelf. You begin piling them up, using your chin for ballast, like that fat mouse in Disney’s version of Cinderella. If only there was a way to manage your holds, say “suspending” some and keeping others “active” so that you can control a little how much you received at one time! Sheesh.
So you lug the stuff home, but life takes over and next thing you know, everything is due. You haul the mother lode back to the library, top off the book drop, and go home. Sand through the hour glass. You wake up one day and you’re haunted. What were those items, anyway? You log into your library account. There’s nothing there. The library, obsessed with your privacy, has deleted any record of this stuff. How are people like you and me expected to survive in this world? Why can’t your library remember the items you’ve checked in?
My friends, the answer to all your hopes and fears is the new patron account available through Bibliocommons! Keep forgetting that card number? No problem! Create a login. Can’t remember what you returned? No problem! “Opt-in” to have your check-ins remembered for a year! Is your hold queue full? No problem! Make lists of items that you would like to read, or listen to, or watch “for later.” You can even create lists to share with your friends. And you can find recommendations by looking at other people’s lists. When you review items, you’ll see them scroll by on the front page of the catalog. Pretty spiffy. If you liked the “Suspend” feature in our old catalog, you’ll love this new “Suspend” feature. It’s so much easier to use, and renewing is a breeze! Check it out, Seattle! Go nuts!
~ Kreg, Central Library
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