If I want to order a book that has multiple copies, it seems like I have to order it from a friend. If I leave the friend box empty and just try to order the book, I'm told that the book is unavailable. Am I doing something wrong?

I have come across this several times and encountered the same thing and have discovered that I have to use the little pull down menu and order from a Friend. Don't ask me why, but if you don't, as you have found out, it says the book is unavailable.

That just happened to me a couple days ago.  I thought I was doing something wrong.  Very annoying, for reasons not relevant here, I didn't want to order from a "friend."

Please notify TPTB. This SHOULD be a glitch. Just because a friend has the book listed, does not mean you should be unable to order via the FIFO queue.

And, please revisit here to post their response.

It appears that there was a glitch in the system, but now it's fixed. Here is the response from TPTB:

Thanks for providing the example. The system was NOT supposed to be forcing you to request from your friend, but we see that that was what was happening.

You should be able to choose how to direct your request (either from any of your friends who have the book posted OR from FIFO), by making the choice in the dropdown menu under the "Order this Book" button.

We've fixed this now, and we really appreciate you letting us know about the problem!

Thanks so much for reporting it, Kathleen!