In transit at NYPL

I get so sad when my books are "in transit" at NYPL for extended periods. Michael Tolliver Lives, Armistead Maupin's post final installment of the Tales of the City series has been listed as "in transit" to my branch of the New York Public Library for four days. I'm number five of 146 people waiting for 121 copies. Unfortunately the Head of Technical Services snatched Barnard's copy before I could get my hands on it. (Lest anyone accuse me of accusing Michael of foul play, when I say "snatched" I mean requested from my pal Brett, our acquisitions person.)

But what's up with that "in transit" explanation that I suspect really means "processing"? When the last Harry Potter book came out and I was like 300 of like 800 waiting for like 500 copies, my copy was listed as in transit for like 2 months. (This time I'm number 211 of 997 waiting for 548 copies, by the way.)

And while I'm complaining about the otherwise fairly pleasant item request system at NYPL, my other major beef is that your hold disappears after a year. I learned this when I had a hold on I forget which movie and after a year I was still waiting for it. On the year anniversary of my request, they removed it--no, "it's been a year, do you still want the DVD?" or anything. I think that's just mean.

Although I do hate waiting to find out what happens to Michael Tolliver and Harry Potter, in general I'm okay with the wait for my books and movies, as long as I'm not frustrated with misleading messages and being summarily bumped out of line.

UPDATE: Michael returned the book to Barnard, and I borrowed it yesterday. Almost done!