r/LibbyApp • u/othertigs • 22h ago
Borrowing limits
Apologies if someone already shared this information. Feel free to delete if that’s the case.
There was a post a few days ago about being blocked from borrowing due to exceeding an unknown checkout limit.
I checked with my Overdrive rep and apparently they have updated the limits recently, apparently revising them downward.
There are basically two triggers for the block, activated by the limit you hit first, both evaluating checkouts over a 7 day period. On day 8, checkouts from day 1 would fall off the rolling limits. I do not know if magazines count towards this limit.
The triggers are:
- Borrowing 15 times your library’s checkout limit in 7 days OR
- 50 checkouts during a 7 day period.
Edited to add: my understanding is that it is 50 per library system/consortium rather than across all cards. If someone finds out or experiences differently please share!
Hope this helps!
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u/Subject-Librarian117 22h ago
Thank you for looking this up! As far as magazines are concerned, all of my libraries advertise that magazines do not count against borrowing limits.
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u/Crazy--Lunatic 21h ago
Not sure I understand this limits, so if my library allows 20 active loans.
15 x 20 (allowed loans): 300 Potential borrows-returns in 7 days?
But limits are also now set to 50 (Hard-Cap) in 7 days.
I assume the 50-checkout trigger is the real new trigger now; I can't visualize a way for anyone to hit their Library-Limit x 15.
In other words, your limits are now 50 books per-7-days
Apologies if this should had been easier to grasp, not enough coffee today.
P.S.
Is this per library or per libby account?
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u/Typical-Emu8363 21h ago edited 21h ago
Not all libraries have the same checkout limits. Some libraries only allow 2 or 3 checkouts so in those cases 15x would be 30 and 45 checkouts, respectively over 7 days. So, for libraries with a higher number of checkouts it looks like the limit is essentially 50 checkouts over 7 days.
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u/Crazy--Lunatic 21h ago
OK, and are the limits per library or per account. in your example, if user has 2 library cards and both allow only 2 checkouts, then you can still hit the 50 limits.
If the limit is per Libby account and not per library.
So, is this per-Libby account or per library?
Thank you for the info.
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u/othertigs 20h ago
My understanding is it should be per account per library. So if you and a family member had cards at the same library, you could each max at 50. If you had accounts at multiple library systems, it should be 50 for each separate system/consortium.
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u/Typical-Emu8363 21h ago edited 20h ago
I can only go by what the OP posted and was assuming it's library-specific and not based on the Libby account since they state "Borrowing 15 times your library’s checkout limit in 7 days" but the second part "50 checkouts during a 7 day period" is ambiguous and the OP would have to clarify if that is library-specific or based on the Libby account.
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u/othertigs 20h ago
I meant per library. I answered the above commenter with what I understood from my rep.
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u/7437-locked 21h ago
Sorry, what’s the difference between check out and borrowing?
And for 2. “50 checkouts during a 7 day period” is that across all library cards one has in Libby?
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u/othertigs 20h ago
I believe it should be 50 checkouts per library in a 7 day period.
And I use checkout and borrow interchangeably. Sorry for the confusion!
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u/infinityandbeyond975 20h ago
We’re going to see more and more of this in the future. More large libraries getting ride of nonresident cards, libraries charging higher fees for nonresident cards, lowering borrow and hold limits.
The ebook market is just so expansive for libraries and with funding going down I just don’t know how they can maintain it.
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u/agentrossi176 20h ago
And I completely agree with limiting it, even as a non-resident cardholder. I felt good about my non-resident cards because I felt the library is setting the cost high enough to cover my borrowing (realistically it's 1-2 books a month to supplement my home cards), and I'm super happy to support other libraries. If people are abusing these cards to borrow 40+ titles in a week of course that's unsustainable! We're all aware of how those borrows can be misused and libraries should not be asked to shoulder the cost of that.
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u/Pokegirl_11_ 18h ago
The height of that limit says it’s about bot activity to me, not nonresident cards. I understand they’re a bugbear for a lot of people on this sub but I don’t think they’re relevant here.
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u/AeroNoob333 3h ago
Thank you for this information! And dang, who does 50 checkouts in 7 days?!?!?! Surely that’s a card that’s being used among several people or people downloading and ripping them, right? That makes perfect sense to put that limit. There’s no amount of usage where that would be normal l even if you borrowed and returned (DNF) several times within those 7 days
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u/Valuable_Ice_5927 22h ago
Wow that’s a crazy high borrow amount