The Seattle Public Library is changing its borrowing limits starting October 15.
The changes include:

Check-out limit: 50 items. Cardholders will need to reduce the number of items checked out to below 50 in order to borrow anything else.

Limit on placing holds: 25 items. Includes active and suspended holds, and holds available for pick-up. Cardholders won’t lose unfilled holds, but won’t be able to place more holds until the total is below 25.

I can understand not letting people check out tons of stuff at a time, but why do they care how many things a person has on hold? The library already limited the amount of time a hold is good for and the amount of time a hold can be inactive, which was annoying enough.

I keep a lot of different things on hold, more than the new limit will allow. I have DVDs and CDs on hold that have long waiting lists and take months to come in. There are lots of books I want to read that I have on hold. Most of my holds are inactive—I am not keeping anyone else from checking the things out—why does the library care how many there are?

This vexes me.

UPDATE: The communications director of the library e-mailed me with some more information about the changes, including this information that I found surprising:

Currently, only 7 percent of borrowers place more than 25 holds at any one time, yet their requests account for more than 44 percent of the total requests. Limiting the number of holds will allow Library materials to circulate more efficiently for more customers. Reducing the holds limit will allow us to stretch our budget for books and other items since we will need fewer copies per title, and it also will reduce stress on our technical systems.

Read the full text after the jump.

I wanted to provide you with some background (I apologize for the length but I wanted to be sure you had the full picture).

The Library has had to make a number of difficult decisions to keep operations sustainable during the continued down economy. We recently cut $1 million from our budget, which included eliminating positions, closing all operations Aug. 31-Sept. 7, and making other difficult reductions. In the current proposed 2010 city budget, a 5 percent cut - a $2.8 million reduction — is slated for the Library budget (as you know, the City Council is now deliberating on the proposed budget). To achieve part of that savings, a week-long systemwide shut down is proposed, as well as reducing operating hours (21 branches would be closed two days a week). At the same time we are experiencing cuts, our use has soared by 20 percent.

Our Materials Loan Policy had not been reviewed since 2003 and our system has expanded substantially since then. Given the high demand for limited resources in these challenging economic times, the Library has needed to find ways to maximize resources for all our customers.

Currently, only 7 percent of borrowers place more than 25 holds at any one time, yet their requests account for more than 44 percent of the total requests. Limiting the number of holds will allow Library materials to circulate more efficiently for more customers. Reducing the holds limit will allow us to stretch our budget for books and other items since we will need fewer copies per title, and it also will reduce stress on our technical systems.

Before landing on the 25 limit, we reviewed circulation policies at other libraries to see how they managed their collections with constrained resources. Regionally, hold limits range from 15-50. The King County Library System (a very popular system and is one of the busiest in the nation) for example, limits holds to 25 items (it just went up from 20). We initially considered a limit of 50 holds per person, but our analysis showed it wouldn’t generate the necessary movement in circulation.

We anticipate that the lower holds limit will change the pattern for some high-volume holds users who may find themselves placing holds more frequently, and for fewer items at one time. Given our circumstances, we see this as a reasonable alternative for most of our customers.

We recognize the lower hold limit will be a difficult adjustment, but we hope customers will understand what hard times we are in. These revisions will help us continue to sustain basic services at a time when there are significant pressures on our limited collections and staffing.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Sincerely,

Andra Addison
Communications Director