Multnomah County Library Catalog Huge Mistake
How long ago was it when Multnomah County Library's management pounded their chests with pride and patted each other's asses over their NEW and IMPROVED website and online catalog. Ever since I've scratched my head wondering what the improvement really could be.
However tonight seems to have not only broken the camel's back but beat to poor sodding critter to death. See it's like this, if you want to check out just about any DVD or VHS from Multnomah County Library you need to put the item on hold and wait. Popular items require a great deal of patience since you will likely be number 254 in line for the item. Even if they purchase 50 copies of an item, considering that people can check each one out for 3 weeks one must be very, VERY patient.
I've been waiting for some items since the beginning of the year. I will be waiting for other items for many months to come...well maybe not.
What would you do if you logged into your account and all your holds were suddenly gone? How would you feel if you spend 10 minutes or so placing each of those holds? Let's just hope you weren't one of the nice voters who actually voted in support of the Library's recent request for money...
How on earth can anyone in their right mind tell us that a system that loses our transactions is an improvement? How can it be better now to have to wait 30-60 seconds for each and every page to load over a dial-up connection? Who in their right mind considers the elimination of booklists (without warning customers first) good customer service? How long did it take to even be able to get this multi-million dollar program to do the basic tasks like print pull sheets and notify staff items are overdue?
And yet the system still seems unable to help staff keep track of library inventory. When I've asked why I've been waiting for an item for months and months that's "In Transit" the whole time, they respond, "If the item was found, it would likely be unplayable - it has been checked out hundreds of times." In other words, you don't really want those grapes - since we can't reach them, they must be sour. Now that is customer service in the year 2006!
And while you can freeze holds for items if there is a long waiting list (say if you go on vacation), you can't freeze items which are on the shelf.
But thank the County Commission we now have a system with cute little rating stars! Like anyone really cares what other users really think when we put on item on hold. Who uses this feature anyway? 12 year old girls who use a little heart for the dot on their letter 'i'? What good is such a feature when you know absolutely nothing about who has rated the item? But after all, Yahoo let's readers rate news articles so of course library users need to be able to rate items in the catalog.
Okay, there is on improvement I can see, icons help us to differentiate between books, CD's, DVD's, and other formats when the title is the same. And I guess having a picture of the item might be helpful to some when trying to remember which version they are looking for. But I'll take a system that works over these features any day of the week!
Imagine if the DMV computer system was such a disaster -- oh wait, it was and heads rolled from the Columbia to California border. But since it's only the library, no one seems to care when they waste money on a new computer system and then blow smoke up everyone's skirt trumpeting how much better things are. But what if the damn thing doesn't work 25% of the time?
Or is it okay if it only malfunctions 10% of the time?
No, it's time to put some decision makers on the block -- they have foisted this system on us and for what?!? It is nothing more than a giant waste of time and money -- just like that beautiful new tramway slowing rising on the east slope of the West Hills.
And they wonder why people complain about how government wastes taxpayer money...
However tonight seems to have not only broken the camel's back but beat to poor sodding critter to death. See it's like this, if you want to check out just about any DVD or VHS from Multnomah County Library you need to put the item on hold and wait. Popular items require a great deal of patience since you will likely be number 254 in line for the item. Even if they purchase 50 copies of an item, considering that people can check each one out for 3 weeks one must be very, VERY patient.
I've been waiting for some items since the beginning of the year. I will be waiting for other items for many months to come...well maybe not.
What would you do if you logged into your account and all your holds were suddenly gone? How would you feel if you spend 10 minutes or so placing each of those holds? Let's just hope you weren't one of the nice voters who actually voted in support of the Library's recent request for money...
How on earth can anyone in their right mind tell us that a system that loses our transactions is an improvement? How can it be better now to have to wait 30-60 seconds for each and every page to load over a dial-up connection? Who in their right mind considers the elimination of booklists (without warning customers first) good customer service? How long did it take to even be able to get this multi-million dollar program to do the basic tasks like print pull sheets and notify staff items are overdue?
And yet the system still seems unable to help staff keep track of library inventory. When I've asked why I've been waiting for an item for months and months that's "In Transit" the whole time, they respond, "If the item was found, it would likely be unplayable - it has been checked out hundreds of times." In other words, you don't really want those grapes - since we can't reach them, they must be sour. Now that is customer service in the year 2006!
And while you can freeze holds for items if there is a long waiting list (say if you go on vacation), you can't freeze items which are on the shelf.
But thank the County Commission we now have a system with cute little rating stars! Like anyone really cares what other users really think when we put on item on hold. Who uses this feature anyway? 12 year old girls who use a little heart for the dot on their letter 'i'? What good is such a feature when you know absolutely nothing about who has rated the item? But after all, Yahoo let's readers rate news articles so of course library users need to be able to rate items in the catalog.
Okay, there is on improvement I can see, icons help us to differentiate between books, CD's, DVD's, and other formats when the title is the same. And I guess having a picture of the item might be helpful to some when trying to remember which version they are looking for. But I'll take a system that works over these features any day of the week!
Imagine if the DMV computer system was such a disaster -- oh wait, it was and heads rolled from the Columbia to California border. But since it's only the library, no one seems to care when they waste money on a new computer system and then blow smoke up everyone's skirt trumpeting how much better things are. But what if the damn thing doesn't work 25% of the time?
Or is it okay if it only malfunctions 10% of the time?
No, it's time to put some decision makers on the block -- they have foisted this system on us and for what?!? It is nothing more than a giant waste of time and money -- just like that beautiful new tramway slowing rising on the east slope of the West Hills.
And they wonder why people complain about how government wastes taxpayer money...
posted by xj at 8:53 PM
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