Ok here's one for you. Since the mud seems to have some reasonably long stints without a crash most of the time now, how about placing a 'box' in each Inn (and maybe scribes as well) on each continent where every 10 minutes or so the Innkeeper/Scribe picks up any spellbooks/eq/whatever is left laying on the floor and puts it in the box.
This will cut all the spam you often get when arriving at an Inn/Scribe and basically keep the place tidy. I mean, Inns do have standards to maintain if they want to have a good reputation for prospective guests...
When you're in the room, you can just 'look in box' and 'get xxx box' for any items you might want.
Casting locate would still be as is, except instead of seeing
'A flaming songbook is in The Scribe's Shop.' you would see
'A flaming songbook is in a box in The Scribe's Shop.' or
'A flaming songbook is in the Bal-Harbor lost property box' or something to that effect.
Any comments/criticism?