I am fairly new to this site, so I don't know exactly how things work.  I was under the assumption that it was first book posted first book out.  ie... if you listed the 13th copie of a certian book the other 12 would have to be order befor yours could be.  However, I listed a book and it was the third one listed.  2 days latter I had a request for it and as far as I can tell the other 2 were still posted.  I'm not complaining I am happy to have the credit, I am just wonderig how it works.  This book was ordered by a member in the same state as me, so is it possible that it is the book that is closest is the one you get when you request a book?

Thank you

Judy, books do go first in, first out (called FIFO).  However, as Liesl mentioned it could have been ordered directly from your bookshelf or more copies could have been posted.  The other thing that could happen is that people could have taken their bookshelves on or off vacation hold since then.  If shelves are on hold they get skipped over, but when they come back they get their original place in line.  Or perhaps multiple copies were requested on the same day, but the first person canceled after the request was assigned to a member.

This is one reason that PBS doesn't tell people where there book is in the FIFO line because it's an always changing fluid line.  It requires a computer to keep track. :-)

sometimes when someone posts a book there is a run on that title.  that happened to me that I was 3rd in line and within a day or so I had a request...because of the amount of time it takes for it to time out, it wasn't that and I don't think there were any requestor conditions

Also - did the request have a "requestor conditions" attached to it?  (special requirements from the sender, like "no smoking" or "no pets" that you would have had to agree to to get the request)  If so, the people ahead of you may have rejected the request due to the conditions.