Is there anyway of knowing how many copies of a book are ahead of you.  With books where there are a lot of copies, how do you know how close to the front of the line you are? 

If you put the book on your reminder list when you post it, you can see how many copies thaere are in the system at that time.

But, there is no way to know where your book is in the FIFO line after that.

If you post your books to your RL when you post them to your BL, you'll be able to see about where you are in line.   (You'll be the last one).   If you just want to see how many books there are in the system for a particular book, just post the book to your RL, and then take it off when you're finished looking.  Pat

this was in the June newsletter

Dear Librarian-  Why don't you have the "posting position" of each book on the site, like you do with the Wish List, so we can see where our posted books are in line to get requests?  It would help us decide to donate some books instead of keep them listed - a book that has 60 available copies for example, I would donate instead of post here.  - Curious in Cooperstown

Dear Coop,

Good question!  We do plan to make this information available at some point - but not just as the position in line.   The raw information would not really help members make decisions about when their books might be requested.  Some books move very fast here!  So that book that has 60 copies in the system?  Those 60 copies could be swapped in a month, if it is a popular book.   Not only that, but FIFO does not govern every swap here - if you are a Boxer (= if you are subscribed to Box-O-Books) or if you offer "deals" in the Book Bazaar (2 books for 1 credit, 3 books for 2 credits, etc), your #60 book may be included as part of a Box-O-Books swap, or added in to a deal you are offering, and thus get requested "early".  

We are working on a way to show members the dynamics of a book in the system, to give the raw number some meaning so it is useful and not prone to being misinterpreted.  This programming is pretty tricky; in the meantime, you can't know where your book is in line to get requests - so that leaves a nice opening for a surprise here and there!