Library Technology Advisory Board

For fellow annarborites and users of the Ann Arbor
District Library's online catalog at http://www.aadl.org -

I've been asked to join the library's Technology Advisory
Board which meets periodically to give feedback when
they are rolling out new services. I'll be going to an
upcoming meeting in early June to see their new website
and catalog design and features, give input and comments
and suggestions, and help refine the design prior to launch.

I can't tell you how excited I am to get this chance, and so
if you have any ideas about library catalogs and want to
feed them through to me for this meeting I'd be happy to
pass them along. You can either send me mail or to this
list, or drop notes at
http://www.socialtext.net/vacuum/index.cgi?library-technology-advisory-board

In particular, if you have some kind of routine that you go
through as a heavy online library catalog user and would
like to share that with me I'd appreciate it. For my part, I
absolutely rely on email reminders of upcoming overdue
books to make sure books go back on time, and thus I
really wish there were a way to sort the list of books that
I have checked out by due date so it's easy to mark the
ones that need renewing. that's ttiny but I do it every day...

Comments

[Kat]

I would very much like (and so would my book club) the ability for the library to automatically check ILL through community libraries for those materials which they don't have or are out on loan. Currently you have to do this yourself, either through MILE (ugh) or call and request a librarian to do it through their secondary (and completely hidden!) ILL system. Why not have this automatic? Surrounding libraries like Manchester do it. I know they're smaller, but with more folks in Ann Arbor more folks need this service.

[Matt Hampel]

Kat: I second that 100%.

Also, a *global log-in system* would be nice so I could do one-click requests, etc. without having to keep logging in.

I can even imagine a column on the front page with a list of books due soon, books on hold, and (maybe even) books within 1 Dewey unit of the books I have checked out now.

[Murph]

If the card catalog terminals could be made faster, I'd appreciate it. I have a habit of going to look for library books when I just miss a bus, to kill time before the next one; as is, I usually find it faster to walk up to the second floor and scan the shelves for the book I want than to use the terminals just inside the front doors. Which is a truly horrific statement about latency.

I also like Matt's idea of a "books within 1 dewey" - since my method of finding books involves walking up to the shelf and scanning for an interesting one (as mentioned), this is basically my method for finding books as it is. I tend to stripmine a decimal until I get bored with it, and then hop somewhere else.

Some kind of Amazon-style social recommendation system would be cool . . .

[Bruce Fields]

A really trivial point: on the library terminals, on the main search page:
http://catalog.aadl.org/web2/tramp2.exe/log_in

the actual search buttons (author/title/etc.) are below the fold--you have to scroll down to use them. Minor but annoying.

Other minor details like that, plus general slowness, make the terminals a little clunkier to use than they should be.

The MiLE interface is really awkward. E.g., why do I have to tell it my local library twice?

[Matt Hampel]

Argh, the MILE interface. I always have to try all 3 of our family's library cards and frequently none of them work. Then once you're in, you have to search 2 separate databases for the same item. What's up with that?

[Ed]

Some more details on the new library catalog from the Innovative newsletter, as blogged by Jenny: http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2005/06/03/innovative_gets_busy.html