Product introduction: bring library borrowing to your phone
Libby is a library reading app. Find a participating library and sign in with a library card to browse its ebooks, audiobooks and magazines; catalogs vary by library. The mobile app supports reading and listening, and a web version is available on computers. Getting started with Libby
Digital books can have waiting lists too. Libraries typically license individual copies, each of which can be borrowed by one person at a time. When all copies are out, readers can place a hold and wait. Why digital books have waiting lists
This article focuses on a familiar situation: your turn finally arrives, but you have not finished your current book. Libby lets you pause a hold and keep your place while the copy goes on to other readers. It separates two decisions: “I still want to read this” and “I am ready to read it now.”
Core workflow: reserve a book and return when you are ready
Suppose you already have a usable library card and want an ebook with no copy currently available.
1. Find the title and place a hold
Use Search at the bottom to find the title, then open its details and check the format and library. If no copy is available, tap Place Hold to join the waiting list; you will be notified when the book is ready to borrow. Go to Shelf → Holds to view and manage the wait. For an immediately available book, choose Borrow, then Borrow again on the confirmation page. Search and borrowing steps
2. Pause delivery when you are not ready
In Shelf → Holds, a book that is not ready uses Manage Hold → Suspend Hold, followed by another Suspend Hold on the confirmation page. For a ready book, choose Suspend, then confirm with Suspend Hold.
While paused, you keep moving up the queue but do not receive a copy until you manually resume the hold. Copies remain available to other readers. A hold expires after 365 consecutive days of suspension, so pausing is not an indefinite storage place for books you might someday read. Pause rules and entry points
3. Resume when ready, then wait for an available copy
Return to Shelf → Holds, choose Unsuspend, then confirm with Unsuspend Hold. Resuming says you are willing to receive the book again; it does not guarantee an immediate loan. Availability still depends on returns, the library’s copy count, and which readers ahead of you also resume their holds. What happens after resuming
When the book is actually available, complete borrowing and open it from Shelf → Loans. It returns automatically when due. Completing this path puts a readable book in your loans, not merely a “resumed” hold. Shelf and returns
Design lessons: separate queue order from readiness to receive
Allow a pause without discarding intent
Being busy does not necessarily mean losing interest. Pausing gives this intermediate state an explicit place: readers need not cancel and rejoin the queue, or borrow immediately just to keep their chance. The tradeoff is remembering to resume manually. Similar services can distinguish continued interest from readiness to receive, then make clear who must act next.
Keep a shared resource circulating
A pause preserves a place in line, not an idle copy reserved for one person. This allows personal schedules and shared-resource use to coexist. The tradeoff is that resuming may still involve waiting. The interface needs to distinguish regaining eligibility from obtaining the resource, rather than covering both with the same vague success message.
Give waiting a place people can find
Holds groups reservations, while Loans contains borrowed books, helping readers find an item by its current stage. In services with a wait, status should explain where the item is, what the user can do now, and when the next step depends on someone else. A clear account of the state is more useful than an unconditional arrival promise.