Report by Janet Pearson

Book of the Month has been for us a victim of its own success. The books on the display issue very quickly, usually in the first day, leaving us with a "tantalising" display but no books. Our loan period is 3 weeks and books can be renewed 3 times before they must be returned.

Although some of our readers seem to be very speedy the majority are not and the returns are therefore very slow. This leaves us for the majority of the month a display that is empty. It may therefore be worth considering issuing the books on a shorter term loan, with no renewal - increasing the potential readership.

At the end of the month our copies are gathered together and passed on to another library (I'm not sure if everyone does this!). Shorter loans would also mean that they were ready to pass on more quickly while they are still relatively "hot off the press".

The only real problem we have experienced is that the books come to us unprocessed and are not usually here in time to get them processed and on to the shelves by publication date.

It has to be said that display really works, the control copy of Bill Broady's Swimmer - shelved in the normal fiction sequence - has yet to issue.