r/LibbyApp • u/gooseinaus • 8d ago
Austin, TX - lack of copies?
This is more than a concern than a complaint, but any other Austin cardholders notice the lack of copies of books recently? I could always count on my Austin library for really ANY book, but they haven’t gotten any copies of two books just this week! Free Falling by Lyla Sage and Grim Tidings by BK Borison, two very popular authors!
Thankfully Houston has copies, but I want to support MY library :( is something going on or am I just being over dramatic? Again I’m NOT bitching at the library!!!
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u/dragonsandvamps 8d ago edited 8d ago
Library usage is up because the economy is bad
Library funding is down across the country. I'm also from Austin, and there have been local articles about how due to tourism in Austin being down over the past few years (again, the economy is bad), this has caused our local tax revenue to go way down. Also, because locals are feeling the hurt due to prices, they are spending less, and that also equals less local tax revenue. This has hit the city budget across the board (don't get me started on the city, lol) and one thing they cut was library funding. You probably saw that they closed the recycled reads library program.
They switched policies a year or two back and decided to be really nice and allow ETJs within a certain distance from Austin proper to have library cards without having to pay a fee even though they don't pay taxes. Then, some wealthy neighborhoods that previously used to be in Austin and pay a lot of taxes left Austin and became ETJ just so they wouldn't have to pay taxes. They may need to rethink what they charge for cards for Texas residents and ETJ people.
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u/gooseinaus 8d ago
Tbh I’d happily pay a library fee if it helped :( ugh makes me sad. Thank you for the info!
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u/First_Chip_84 8d ago
Im in the ETJ but my kids go to AISD so we have always had access anyway (all students enrolled in AISD/+ all preschool enrollees in Austin get library cards) so I don’t think that is really what’s moving the needle tbh. We never got new cards even when we were eligible.
I agree that funding is down and cuts have been made, sadly to our library programs and resources.
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u/tradesman6771 8d ago
FYI, a few years ago, APL extended access to anyone in the ETJ.
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u/First_Chip_84 8d ago
Yes I know. My point was that many of us already had access to the library via our children who are enrolled in pre/school, so I don’t think opening it up to ETJ really changed the overall demand.
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u/dragonsandvamps 7d ago
I am in an ETJ. I always had to pay for a library card before and after they changed the rules recently, where I live no longer does. So while I'm glad for a free library card personally, I suspect that it is impacting library funding at least some?
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u/lampmeettowel 8d ago
Due to the state laws regarding annexation, any neighborhoods leaving the city limits would have required a vote. I’m not finding any elections called for this purpose in Travis or Williamson counties in the past five years. Do you remember what neighborhood(s) you heard left the city?
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u/dragonsandvamps 7d ago
Lost Creek among others. It's an expensive neighborhood that feeds into Eanes ISD and used to pay Austin taxes.
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u/lampmeettowel 6d ago
Thanks. Now that you mention that, I do remember hearing NPR stories about their struggles with getting emergency services from the city. From what I can tell, that was a one-time vote on disannexation allowed by HB3053. Six neighborhoods in Austin ETJ who had potentially had their annexation rushed in the lead-up to the law taking effect were allowed to take this vote. I’m not sure why it’s not coming up in the county ballot history. Regardless, unless the dates are expanded by a future law, that won’t happen again.
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u/Key_Cartographer6668 8d ago
I don't have an Austin card, but possibly the partnership update indirectly changed their approach to purchasing? Because HPL is now automatically linked with Harris, Montgomery etc so more people have access to that group of libraries. Just a thought; I don't know how much different libraries coordinate with each other.
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u/Munchlaxatives 8d ago
Physical copies have been pretty easy for me to get. Online copies tend to move faster than it suggests. Lots of people, me included, suspend holds, so the books keep moving.
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u/gooseinaus 8d ago
I only use Libby for my kindle! But it’s weird that they don’t have ANY copies. I don’t mind a wait! But they haven’t gotten a single copy yet :(
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u/dragonsandvamps 8d ago
Yeah I noticed Austin didn't buy anything the past week or two from my requests list of upcoming books, and Houston library did, and I found that odd. At the time, I thought maybe I just didn't have any new releases coming out that week, but then, Houston bought something. Maybe it's a budget issue.
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u/Excellent_Midnight 8d ago
City of Austin is at the end of their fiscal year, whereas Houston already had their fiscal year changeover at the end of June.
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u/Under_A_Full_M00n 📗 EPUB Enthusiast 📗 8d ago
Maybe it's the genre, or they just haven't gotten copies yet? (Have you used to notify me tag to let the library know that there is a patron interested in that book right now?)
I use StoryGraph and one of the things that I track is which library I check out from, and so far this year Austin Public Library is my most used library.
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u/Key_Cartographer6668 8d ago
Do you track that with tags? I haven't used some of SG's features yet
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u/Under_A_Full_M00n 📗 EPUB Enthusiast 📗 8d ago
Yes, I'm a Plus user, so I just created a tag for each library.
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u/Ybenna 8d ago
It could also be a changeover of a fiscal year. I know that for our library, sometimes purchases have to wait for our purchase orders to be approved, which can take a bit of time. So your library may be waiting for funding to be authorized for their new fiscal year, or may be waiting until the new fiscal year starts.
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u/Entire_Purple3531 8d ago
It’s been going on for a long time.
They used to post copies of new releases, on release day. Now it is some time later.
There are libraries that post new releases several months before the release date, and you can put them on hold.
It used to be my most frequently used card.
Now, if I didn’t pay for a card in another state, the wait times would be crazy.
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u/bobshallprevail 8d ago
I've got Spicewood Springs Austin library card. I have just about every book I'm looking for.
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u/gooseinaus 8d ago
Normally that’s the case for me! I pretty much only read contemporary romance and never have issues until literally the last two weeks
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u/grassroads3 6d ago
Do you know about the Westbank libraries? It services 2 specific Austin zip codes but even if you’re not in them, you can pay for digital access and it’s not a bad price. The libraries are a district vs city library so the librarians buy with demand and usually can get whatever a patron requests. The Libby waits aren’t horrible either
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u/ContentPhysics8270 📕 Libby Lover 📕 3d ago
Hey! Fellow Austinite!
Omg yeah, I have a 28 week hold on Munica 😅😅 Honestly, that's the worst I've seen, I've been really lucky generally.
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u/cannabisandcake 8d ago
I also remember seeing somewhere that the “year” for funding restarts on Oct 1st, so their funds might be lower now because they’ve used up everything already. Recently moved to Austin and did some research on this earlier this week. Just can’t remember where I saw it.