Fraser Valley Regional Library: Site Re-Design…PLEASE
Okay, kids, it’s rant time. Last night we decided to go to the library, so I went to have a look at the website to see how late the branch was going to be open. Entered the URL into Firefox - http://www.fvrl.bc.ca -and it reported that it couldn’t be found. Hmm….tried again. Nothing. I knew that that was the right URL, so I went to Google and entered Fraser Valley Regional Library. Google brought up its results, with the first one being, of course, http://www.fvrl.bc.ca. Clicked on it and it brought me right to the site. Uh, okay.
Library was open till 9, so we decided to head down there (it being only 7:30 and all) and while we were there,decided to get some kids books on cats. No problem, says I. I’ll just pull up the information from the catalogue. Entered ‘cats juvenile’ into their search box and it came up with a number of books, none of which appeared to be at the branch we were at. Hmm….okay, there’s got to be a way to sort based just on the branch we’re at. There is, but it’s not easy to find. Under ‘Limit/Sort Search’ there’s a number of drop down boxes, one of which is marked as ‘Where Item is Located’. Sounds about right to me, and it turned out to be what I was looking for.
I selected the branch we were at, and tried again. It seemed to return more results, except for the fact that by the time I got to about the fourth book listed, it wasn’t listed as being in the local branch, but at three different branches out in the valley. How the !@# is this relevant?
Finally I decided to request a couple of books be brought in. I logged in, and got an error message, and to please try again. Repeatedly. I gave up and used my wife’s card. She had never used the card to reserve books, so had never put a PIN number on her account. No problem, said the system. Just enter a PIN and if there’s not one already assigned, it’ll report that as being the case and ask you to confirm the choice of a PIN number.
Wrong. Six times it reported that there was an error of some kind, and to please try again. Using a *third* card, we were finally able to get books reserved. When I went to inquire about the problems we’d been having, the staff flew around their system and were able to do everything I’d been struggling with with no problems. Now, I’ve been using computers since 1982, and websites since about 1995. I’m no clueless luser. But quite clearly, the website that the FVRL uses for its catalogue system is designed for librarians, and not for customers. Which is about the very worst thing possible.
If you think that customers having problems and then coming to library staff is a good thing, then something’s very wrong with you. It’s supposed to be EASY for users to find what they’re looking for, not having to click on a bunch of drop down boxes hoping that they’ve provided the correct parameters for a search.
That’s not the way it’s supposed to be. It’s time to rethink how you provide information to your customers, FVRL.
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6 Responses to “Fraser Valley Regional Library: Site Re-Design…PLEASE”
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What’s a library? lol I haven’t been to a library in years!
My mum is the systems administrator for the Coquitlam Public Library System which is separate from the Fraser Valley Library System.
But yes normally the systems are designed for the Librarians and not the Patrons, after all what use would a Librarian be if you could find the book yourself?
Yeah, the same thing happens with the SFU website. “http://sfu.ca” just hangs, but “http://www.sfu.ca” brings you straight to the homepage. They really need to get on the bandwagon and just ignore the “www”.
Tyler hit it on the nose. Annoying for sure and probably should be changed, but there it is.
The same way at all the library’s in our area.
Thank you very much for your valuable comments about our website and on-line catalogue. My name is Scott Hargrove, and I am the Senior Manager of Information Technology at Fraser Valley Regional Library (FVRL). As you may have noted from the home page of our website, we are indeed in the early stages of a website re-design - in fact, we are running a survey to solicit the opinions of our customers regarding things they would like to see on our new, re-designed website. I hope you’ll take the opportunity to fill it out if you haven’t already. You’ll undoubtedly be happy to know that many of the weaknesses you’ve listed have already been identified, and where possible, we will rectify them.
Thank you in particular for drawing our attention to the resolution problem with fvrl.bc.ca, relative to http://www.fvrl.bc.ca. We are correcting this problem now, and once the solution propogates through the DNS servers (24-48 hours), the website should be accessible from fvrl.bc.ca.
Unfortunately, some of the problems you’ve identified can’t be as easily fixed - or at least, not immediately. Many of your concerns are related to our on-line catalogue, which is actually a completely separate computer system from our website. It is a web-based software application provided by our Integrated Library System, which is the central database computer system
that allows us to circulate our materials. It is an enterprise-level software application purchased from Innovative Interfaces, a library automation system vendor, and offers little freedom for customization by FVRL, their customer. I intend to refer this company to your blog comments in an effort to help them develop their software in accordance with the needs of you, our customer.
However, independent of this long-term solution, FVRL is actively investigating a variety of options to improve this service. In a couple of months, we will be launching an upgraded version of the on-line catalogue application, which should perform a bit more reliably. We will also be piloting a brand new Web 2.0-level on-line catalogue product from an alternative vendor in the autumn. The application will initially be tested with a few hundred volunteer FVRL customers - if you are interested in being part of this group, please contact me, and I’ll add your name to the list.
If you would like to discuss any of these issues with me at greater length, please send me an e-mail, and I’ll be happy to schedule time to talk with you about them.
Once again, thank you for taking the time to provide these comments regarding our web services - your feedback will help us to serve you better in the future.
Sincerely,
Scott Hargrove
Scott - Thanks very much for your comment. I actually filled out the survey regarding the website before these events occurred, and I don’t really have a problem with the library’s website at all. The fvrl.bc.ca vs http://www.fvrl.bc.ca issue was probably an isolated incident, as I’m certain that I entered http://www.fvrl.bc.ca as the URL. Most likely a temporary DNS issue, and not really a big problem so long as it’s not an ongoing concern.
As you guessed, though, my bigger complaint was in fact with the online catalogue, as it just didn’t seem intuitive to the average user - I’ve been a network admin, and designed a site or two, and I have to admit that I was having some problems navigating the search.
I’m glad to hear that the library is investigating new solutions, and I would very much like the opportunity to participate in the testing for the new system, so if you could add my name to the list that would be great.
I’d love the opportunity to post again about how the new system, if it gets implemented, works great and is simple enough for even young kids to use.
Once again, thanks very much for your comments. They’re very much appreciated.
Well, at the very least you know they are able to check stats lol. A good comment by Scott, it sounds like they’re on it nicely.
Help ‘em out! Perhaps get a linkback