Thoughts now that BiblioCommon is live...

I just wanted to post some of the issues that I have discovered since BiblioCommons went live to the library public. People seem to love the catalog. It is so much more responsive, but I have had complaints from the public that I am hearing other staff members mention also. The main complaint that I have heard is that everyone must go through registration before they can put items on hold or renew items. I spoke with a very upset older lady today who could not understand why the website wouldn't let her renew her DVDs. I explained that she just needed to register with the catalog, at which time I was informed that she had registered for a library card over a year ago and that she didn't understand why the new catalog kept kicking her out. After trying for several minutes to get her to provide a username, I ended up renewing her DVDs through WorkFlows. She was getting more and more upset the longer I tried to explain about the new catalog, so it made more sense to accomplish her goals than to use this as a learning experience. If anyone has had a better experience, please leave me a comment so that I have a better response next time. I really don't know what the answer is, but this does seem to be a problem. I do believe once we have more people registered on BiblioCommons, this will be a catalog that will be well-liked and widely used. I realize that any time you do something new, there will be glitches to deal with and this new catalog seems to have fewer than I have dealt with on other programs.

New catalog/networking site

I have been playing with BiblioCommons every chance I've had and I am looking forward to it going live! Not only is it easier for patrons to use, but there are many cool features for people to usethat go beyond just discovering what materials our library owns. My favorite feature involves holds. BiblioCommons tells you where you are on the hold list. I also like the fact that you can create a list of books that you want to read later. Too often I discover more titles than I can read at one time and end up with piles of books checked out that I never have time to finish. Hopefully this feature will help me and others that have this problem. I didn't get my Scavenger Hunt turned in on time because of the problems with the system on Friday evening, but that's what I get for waiting until the last day! I did go ahead and do the activities once the system was back up and learned a lot.