What’s up with long Libby holds?

Are you or your patrons wondering about long waits on Libby holds? NPR Podcasts recently posted a YouTube video-short about this issue: Why is your Libby hold taking so long? How can you be “in line” to borrow a digital library book? – YouTube

Start of tax season

IRS announces Jan. 27 start to 2025 tax filing season; agency continues historic improvements to expand, enhance tools and filing options to help taxpayers. This information is also available in Spanish and Chinese.

Welcome to new IFLS staff

Please welcome two new MORE Database Specialists, Alyson Jones and Julia Reid. You can find them on the IFLS staff directory.
 

Marketing notes

Somerset’s was better than Reb’s

Giving credit where it’s due!

Library Love Story update

We’re at 253 stories collected with 30 libraries represented! Wouldn’t it be great if we had 300 stories from 100% of our library communities? Anything submitted before February 5 will go to Madison with us.

• Look at the Google sheet (automatically updated)
• Look at the Excel spreadsheet updated today
• Look at the PDF as of today

What the heck, Meta?

Reb put together some thoughts and strategies in a Marketing Monthly Extra.

MORE’s top fives

Here are MORE’s most checked-out titles of 2024, in a few categories:

Adult fiction

1. The Women by Kristin Hannah
2. The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger
3. The Teacher by Freida McFadden
4. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
5. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

Adult Non-fiction

1. The Anxious Generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness by Jonathan Haidt
2. Oath and Honor: a memoir and a warning by Liz Cheney
3. The Demon of Unrest: a saga of hubris, heartbreak, and heroism at the dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson
4. Killers of the Flower Moon : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI by David Grann
5. The Boys in the Boat: nine Americans and their epic quest for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

Movies

1. Oppenheimer
2. Barbie
3. Wonka
4. Indiana Jones and the dial of destiny
5. The hunger games: The ballad of songbirds and snakes

Children’s books

1. Guinness world records
2. Dog Man Unleashed by Dav Pilkey
3. Dog Man: Twenty thousand fleas under the sea by Dav Pilkey
4. Dog Man: The scarlet shedder by Dav Pilkey
5. Dog Man: Lord of the fleas by Dav Pilkey

On the calendar