ok, I requested a book 8/12 and the person never responded.  I saw today that it started over the count for the sender to respond.  Did it go to the next person in line that has that book available?  Sorry, I'm still trying to get a feeling for how this all works

That's exactly what happened.  The first person the book is requested from has 5 days to accept the request.  If they don't respond in that time frame it goes to the next person with the book available, until someone accepts the request.

I've had that happen to me too...I hate having to wait that long.

Thank you!  I just didn't want to be waiting for the same person to not respond.

If you let a request time out, the system automatically removes the book from your shelf.  If the other person is still active they'll have to repost the book and start at the end of the FIFO line.  If you cancel the order and reorder-it'll just to that same non-responder.  So you did the right thing in letting it timeout. Letting them time out helps weedout the inactive people.   It's hard to wait but eventually someone will accept.  Also a request not being accepted right away doesn't mean the person is inactive.  They could just need a few more days to mail and so they're waiting to accept.

Just so you know...if the person doesn't respond within the time limit their copy of that book is pulled from their shelf.  They then have to repost it and go to the end of the fifo line.  That way people have an incentive to manage their accounts properly and respond to requests.

Happy reading!

Sara