Help us beta test the new torontopubliclibrary.ca
We have been working on a complete redesign of our website. Today we’re happy to announce that the new site is available for beta testing, and we’d like to invite you, our blog readers, to be the first to try it out and give us your feedback.
Test beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca
About the beta site
The old website and catalogue are still available, but while you’re testing the beta, you should know that all the data in it is live – the status of items (checked in, checked out) is in real time and anything you do (placing holds, changes in your account) is real. You are also seeing live program listings and blog posts.
This is very much a beta. The website is still in development, so some aspects are incomplete (e.g. no content on some pages or sections, links that don’t work yet, some visual design and labels that need to be finalized).
So please go to our existing website if you’re looking for current library information such as policies, catalogue help and library board and service information.
Known issues with the beta site
Why are you changing the site again?
The new website is the latest development in a multi-year plan to improve the library’s online services and lay the groundwork for future growth. Last year, we replaced the computer system that manages our inventory and customer accounts. This was a big change that had to be made to support the library’s operations, but it did not directly address many aspects of how our customers interact with the library online. The focus of the current redesign has been on making the website easier and more enjoyable to use.
So…what's new?
- Improved search is the major change we’re introducing with this redesign. Basically, we wanted to make searching for library materials as easy and intuitive as searching the internet or on an online shopping site. If you’re interested in the details, check out our previous posts (part 1 and part 2) about how the new search engine works.
- One site and search for everything: our existing search tool (the catalogue) only searches for library materials. The new website brings together materials (books, movies, eBooks, etc.) with information about library programs, branches, and services. All the library has to offer is housed under one site and one search.
- Up-to-date web features: the new website has been built to current web standards. This makes the site more accessible for people with special needs, and also means we can offer the kinds of functions (RSS feeds, sharing tools) that are found on most major websites.
- Fixes for issues on the existing site: in building the new website, we’ve been able to address some of the things we know you don’t like about the current site. For instance, we’ve done a better job of ensuring that “Place Hold” links only show up for items that are actually holdable. And now entering your library card number to place a hold signs you in, so you won’t be asked to enter it again when you try to place a hold on a second item.
- An extensible platform for future development: the new website is built on a foundation that will enable the library to react quickly to new needs and resolve issues. This includes enabling open data, multi-language, mobile hand-held device experiences and future features and growth.
But some things haven't changed. Why not?
The focus of this phase of the website redesign was on implementing a new search engine and web platform. We’ve been paying attention to your comments about other improvements you’d like to see, and we’re planning to address them in the near future. Some things you won’t see yet in the new site, but that we hope to develop soon:
- Ability to delete the history of missed holds on your account summary screen
- List-making functions, including the option to keep a history of items you’ve borrowed from the library in the past
- Self-service features like online payment for overdue fines and online library card registration
We rely on your input to help us prioritize improvements and new features, so please share your thoughts on this blog.
Here you go! http://beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca
89 thoughts on “Help us beta test the new torontopubliclibrary.ca”
Hi folks. Fun to try the beta site. Were you aware that your blog site does not display properly in Google Chrome? All the links are hidden (white on white?).
Cheers,
LT
Thanks – we’re having some display issues this morning on the blog and are working on it – enjoy the beta!
I’m glad to see that the library is working to improve its website. Here are some of my first impressions:
When I log in to or go to my account, the Search function disappears. Search should appear on every page.
Searching is very, very slow. In fact, the whole system is extremely sluggish.
My session times out way too soon. I logged in, did a few searches, and then tried to place a hold, only to be told my session had expired. I couldn’t have been searching for more than 5 minutes.
After choosing to place a hold, the system doesn’t remember my preferred (home) branch for pickups.
The use of terminology is inconsistent. At the top, I choose “Sign In.” After I click on that link, the form submission button says “Log on.”
You should get rid of the coloured bars at the top of the page: It makes the site look like eBay. Please find a more distinctive identity.
Finally, for now, a question: Where can I post screen shots to show you browser display problems? At least one page isn’t displaying properly in Camino.
Thanks for all the work you’ve obviously done so far. As a practically daily user of the website, I’m looking forward to seeing the new site evolve.
I noticed that the ‘Get the latest’ pages only have the page selection links at the top, not at the bottom of the page. The regular search has them in both places.
Hi there,
pages load very slowly compared to old pages using Firefox.
Some first quick impressions:
The “Holds” page doesn’t align text properly under the labels. (Text seems to be indented slightly right of the label text.) But most importantly, the words “Active” and “Inactive” for outstanding holds are cut off on the right side. Adjusting my page zoom didn’t help. This is on Firefox for Mac.
After using the “Sign In” link on the front page, I was returned to the front page, just signed in. I would prefer to be taken to my account, though perhaps other users might disagree.
I like the faceted search, but I’ll play with it some more to see if anything stands out as not quite right.
I love the “Today’s hours” list right on the locations page since that’s almost always why I’m there. Maybe put an anchor-link to it above the map, in case people don’t explore the page before making the effort to search the map.
Hi David,
Regarding slowness–we were doing some server infrastructure work on Saturday that may have contributed to this. We are definitely still in the process of optimizing performance via web caching and other means.
Holds and login functionality–this is still being worked on. We’ve made some improvements over the old functionality, but we’ve still got more to make regarding session timeouts and other issues.
Ebay resemblance–I’ll forward this on to our design staff.
Screen shots–if you’re a Flickr user, ask to join our pool at http://www.flickr.com/groups/tpl-website/ – if not, you can send them by email to webteam@torontopubliclibrary.ca (or post them to your preferred photo sharing site and provide us a link, we’re not picky)
Thanks for your feedback!
Hi Jeff,
I’m going to fix that shortly. Thanks for pointing it out.
> Screen shots–if you’re a Flickr user, ask to join
> our pool
Thanks for the info, Alan. I’ve posted two screen shots to the Flickr group. I think these are probably similar to the display problem that Madeleine posted, as Camino uses the same Gecko engine as Firefox.
The new items pages now have bottom pagination. Please don’t expect that quick a turnaround for all fixes, it isn’t always that easy. 🙂
Hi David,
Thanks for the shots–we’ve got a team member looking into the issues.
I think you’ll find that most of these display issues are due to coding for Internet Explorer instead of coding to web standards.
I haven’t fooled around with this too much yet, but it looks like the ability to do my favourite search has disappeared. To keep an eye on new CD’s coming into the system, every once in a while I do an advanced search: leaving the search box bank, and limiting it to Format: CD, Publication Year: 2009 and let it churn out a big list of results, which always came out with the newest items in the catalogue first.
Now, in the new search, it looks like I can’t make any search leaving the search box blank. Unless there’s some kind of undocumented wildcard, I’m not sure how to define a “generic” search like that.
J.S., you can search for CD’s the same way. In our new site, use the basic search. No keyword is needed. Just click Search. Then limit to Type: Music – CDs. Limit to Publication Year.
You can also see new Music in the Books, Video, Research & more section. Neat feature – You can look at the previous New lists as well as the current one (use Back 30 days).
If you wish, you can use Advanced Search. However it works differently from iBistro. You must put in a search term but the keyword CD works. Pick your limiters as before.
Check this out. We would love to hear more from you as you explore the site!
David–most our testing is done on the latest Windows version of Firefox and IE7 these days, with some additional testing on other browsers/versions/platforms. Agreed on web standards comment generally thought–we’re in the process of tightening them up as part of the ongoing development.
Quick link to the New Music page that Frances mentions in her reply to JS: http://beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca/endecaApp/pages/books-video-music/new-items.jsp?category=Adult%20Music
Doing a blank search will return you the entire search results set (all 2,383,984 items as of this morning) to manipulate using the facets. A lot of functionality that was previously accessible only through Advanced Search can now be accessed iteratively through facet refinement.
The comment does make me think we should make it more clear that you can just do a no-terms search to get everything, then refine. Maybe a big “I Want To See Everything!” button (though that might be too Google-derivative). 🙂
Typo!
On the “wait while we redirect you” page that appears between clicking “sign in” and getting my account page, the page title misspells “Public” as “pubilc.” It could be worse.
Is that redirect page going to be permanent, or is that an artifact of the beta status? Getting from “Sign in” to my account is still an incredibly long load time.
I did an advanced search for “Company.” I chose “Title” as the search field, “Movies and videos” as the Type, and “English” as the language. (I was searching for a DVD of the Broadway musical Company.)
In return I did get a list of DVDs and VHS tapes in English. However, several of the titles did not contain the word “company” or even “companies.” For a couple of examples, I got back: Making Unhappy Customers Love You, and History of Advertising Animation: 1940-1950.
Then, when I used the now-prefilled search field for “company” and checked “Only search: Movies & Videos ; English,” I got back an entirely different set of results, including: Yes Man, Milk, and There Will Be Blood.
Clearly something is amiss with Advanced Search.
On a related note, on the search results page, it would be helpful to have the “Results per page” selection at the top of the page, rather than the bottom. It would also be nice to be able to set the preferred number of results per page as a user preference.
More on Results per page. If I get more than 10 but fewer than 20 results, I can’t use the Results per page selection to choose “20.” The only option is “10,” which means I can’t choose to see all the results on one page, I’m forced to use the paginated results. This is not an expected behaviour.
I added an image to flickr of an odd phenomenon I spotted today: Odd fonts appear after clicking a book title and then using back to return to the Holds page. The change persists with logout/login, even hours later. Mac OSX 10.4.11, Firefox 3.5.5
Madeleine: That’s what a link looks like after you visited it. I think the library is tinkering with the CSS styling, given the absence of styling around the Your Account pages generally the past number of days.
Alan: any chance you can get rid of the boldface when we hover over a link? I know it makes it really obvious when you’re over an active link, but it’s disconcerting the way it pushes other elements around in the Your Account tables.
Madeleine: the “pubilc” typo has been corrected (and yes, it could have been worse).
The redirect page is an artifact of beta status. We recently completed some work to simplify the URL and directory structure that have removed the need for it, but haven’t pushed the changes to the beta site yet.
Hi David,
As is the way of these things the unexpected behaviour re: “company” searching is logical, just not the logic it really should be. We’re still working on search logic tweaking / record display.
There are really two issues here:
1) “company” does appear in “Title” of “Making Unhappy Customers Love You”, but as the title of the second video in the set (you can see this in the extended record details fields). There’s a number of different fields searched by the Title interface, and in this case “company” appears in one that isn’t part of the regular display (740, if you know MARC).
2) The Advanced Search allows for more granular access to searchable fields (Author, Subject, Title, etc), but displays its results to be manipulated in the same manner as the basic search. Looks like this is causing the Advanced Search selections to limit to Title/Author/etc to be lost when you do a re-search (they’re retained if you just refine using the facets).
Agreed that neither of these meets expected behaviour criteria, will bring them to the appropriate people’s attention.
Regarding Results per page: one thing we do want for the future is greater customization of the site to personal preference, including things like saving your preferred results per page. I’ll look into the issue of RPP over 10 but less than 25 preventing you from choosing the higher RPP display–agreed this is unexpected behaviour, and should be a simple component-level fix.
Styles of Holds / Your Account: I’ll bring this to the attention of staff working on these components. I think some of the issues you refer to are directly within the iBistro web catalogue rather than the new website. Holds/Your Account is definitely an area that will see further refinement in terms of design and behaviour.
And thanks again for the comments and observations (I am just now back from some time off for the holidays, so am replying to several at once).
it would be amazing if I could access a history of all the items I had ever checked out…I take out so many books sometimes I am not sure if I have already taken out a book, and I would like to keep track of the things I have read.
I’ve found any number of bugs.
Placing a hold on items often results in errors like this:
Confirmation
Call number or item ID is required
Title: Adobe Photoshop for fashion design
Author: Lazear, Susan.
The system already knows what the call number is. Sometimes placing a hold on the old catalogue works.
alt=”spacer” is prohibited.
Doesn’t work in Lynx, for many reasons, including tag soup and the fact that the login intermission page (which shouldn’t exist) is made up entirely of JavaScript.
On any results page, it just isn’t clear where you go to do another search.
Hi Joe,
The “Call number or item ID is required” bug has been fixed in our development environment, but we haven’t made the change live to the beta server yet. Placing a hold on “Adobe Photoshop for fashion design” or other titles with call numbers beginning with XX should work on beta from the item detail page (if it doesn’t then it’s a different bug than the one I think it is and we’ll have to look into it further).
We’re currently engaged in actively cleaning up tag structure and correcting issues like the ALT=”spacer” one. Can’t promise full Lynx functionality, but improvements are coming.
Lack of clarity for doing new search from a results page is a larger issue–you can do a new search from the search bar appearing immediately above the results, but I agree this is non-obvious.
Thanks for the feedback–our work to improve the new site both in user experience & web standards is an ongoing process.
More CSS funny business on the Your Account pages. The font size for the bottom-of-page links increases when you hover over them. They appear to behave more as expected (i.e., they become underlined but do not change in size) on the rest of the site.
Hi David,
We’re currently working on applying new CSS to the Your Accounts and Your Holds pages on the new site. They’re actually currently using the iBistro CSS (old web catalogue) and some of the HTML structure from there, which is why their appearance and style behaviour is a bit off.
The Your Account and Your Holds pages require direct back-and-forth communication between the new site and our Symphony integrated library system, so they’re somewhat more complex technically than most of the other new site functionality.
Thanks for the comments!
Hi TPL web folks –
Just off my first quick visit to the beta site, noticed:
clicking an item link on the holds tab leads to a 404 (yeah, you warned us)
clicking an item link on the checkouts tab leads to an item detail page which renders funny in my Firefox 2.0 & Chrome 1.0, but more-or-less ok in Opera 9.64 (though links in the footer are ugly)
Opera 9.64 displays Account Summary, Checkouts and Holds on one long page; doesn’t split it into tabs
Opera 9.64, on item details page, displays the full details (eg, “Publication info”, “Physical descrip”) by default without an explicit request for expansion
The latter two comments re Opera apply to the live site too, IIRC.
Also, I’d like to second April M’s feature request for a checkouts history.
Thanks, guys. Work hard!
Oops. My image link above fails due to hot-linking prohibited.
You can browse instead to this directory listing and select the “TPL Beta …” link.
Feature suggestions:
– Ability to remember login. i.e. If you’re logging on to the library system exclusively from home, it’s OK to be able to save the Library card number as a cookie so that we don’t have to re-type it everytime.
– Permit longer sessions without timeout.
– Improve search speed.
– Have complete thumbnails of library collection. There are many library books without thumbnails right now.
iPhone friendly?
Hi Adam,
Thanks for the reports and the screenshots. We know the Your Account pages have some issues right now–they are a bit more complicated to manage than some other parts of the new site because of the interaction with Symphony/iBistro.
Hi J.L.,
I know a lot of people do client-side saving of their card/PIN on their home computer (I do it using Firefox). I agree a “remember me” function for the site itself would be nice, though.
We’re working on session timeout and search speed issues.
We’d definitely like to improve the number of cover thumbnails, but it’s a somewhat complex issue to manage with potential implications for performance if we start adding additional automated sources. We’re exploring various possibilities at the moment.
As for the iPhone–we have fixed a few iPhone-related issues as we’ve encountered them in testing. I think most functionality is fine (if not optimized) on modern mobile devices, but feel free to report any problems (I am a Blackberry user myself, so this is not a personal testament).
I have just discovered that it appears it will be possible to subscribe to an RSS feed of search results. This looks terrific.
I clicked on one of the subject headings for a DVD I currently have out: “Video recordings for the hearing impaired.”
When I subscribed to the feed for the search, the initial feed list only included the first 10 selections, instead of all 7,842, as I would have expected. Thinking this must be tied to the number of Results per page that I was seeing, I increased the number of results to the maximum, 50, and resubscribed. Sure enough I got back 50 results.
But, really, shouldn’t my initial subscription have hauled in all initial 7,842 results? If more than 50 DVDs with captioning for the hearing impaired get processed on a catalogue database update, does that mean my feed will only tell me about the first 50, and not all of them?
Still, the search feeds look like a great idea. I look forward to being able to track new acquisitions by my favourite authors or on subjects of particular interest automatically via these feeds.
Hi David,
Yes–the RSS feed for search results is one of the neat features enabled by the technology we’re using. It’s now really easy to transform our dynamic content into other structured forms, including RSS feeds.
Currently the RSS functionality just converts the first page of the search results to a feed (this is why it’s tied to Results Per Page–you’ll also notice all your search terms and limits are in the feed URL as parameters). I think this is largely for performance reasons–returning all results in one feed for large sets would be quite demanding on the site, particularly because of the cover images.
The default sort for search results is also “Best Match” rather than publication date, so to get a feed of the newest items for a particular search, be sure to sort by Date before you subscribe to the feed.
Couple of example feeds below showing some of the potential for this to keep you up to date on new items or upcoming programs:
http://beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca/rss.jsp?N=&Ns=p_pub_date_sort&Nso=1&Ntt=Toronto+(Ont.)–History&Erp=50 – 50 newest items for Toronto history
http://beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca/rss.jsp?Erp=50&N=37924+20206&Ns=p_pub_date_sort&Nso=1&Ntt=documentaries – 50 newest documentaries on DVD
http://beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca/rss.jsp?N=37867+33183+33191+37848+37744&Ns=p_pub_date_sort&Nso=0&Erp=50 – Upcoming library programs for the next week
at Yorkville and Toronto Reference Library branches
Basically, if you can build the search, you can subscribe to a feed of it.
Major bug: hours and location page does not open for me at all (using Firefox 3.5.7 and yes, I realize it’s Java-enabled).
“- Ability to remember login. i.e. If you’re logging on to the library system exclusively from home, it’s OK to be able to save the Library card number as a cookie so that we don’t have to re-type it everytime.
– Permit longer sessions without timeout.”
YES, YES – THIS!!! When I use my home computer, I don’t want to ever be logged out of anything. All my online services like e-mails, RSS etc. are configured in such a way that I don’t need to log in and my browser does not have to remember passwords – at least the services that allow for such an option, of course. I also want the option of having sessions that never time out: it does not have to be default behaviour if security is a concern, but can’t you let a user check a box? If I’m using a public machine, I know enough to sign out at the end of the session. Or at least make the time-out time not so ridiculously short.
Looking forward to eventual list-making capabilities; I’ve always wanted a “wishlist” capability: items I don’t necessarily want to place a hold on right now, but would like to make a note of for the future.
Hi chephy,
Do you receive any kind of error message when trying to open Hours & Locations? I am still on FF 3.03 on this machine and can’t check in the newest version right now. There have been some intermittent issues with the Google Maps implementation blocking rendering on the Hours & Locations page that we’ve been trying to sort out (it’s tricky because it’s not consistently reproducable). I’ll dig into this and see if I can replicate once I can get access to FF 3.57.
UPDATE: I’m unable to reproduce on FF 3.57 running under Windows XP. Suspect the rendering issue with the map.
Please lets us have RSS feed and Email for the status of our loans e.g. be able to get and email 2 days before a book is due or an email if a book we have can’t be renewed and push the same updates into an RSS feed (personal feed) so we can’track it that way. With deep links so if we link a renew link that does the renewal.
Hi Paul,
We hear you, and have heard from others who would like more options for receiving account notifications. This is definitely a feature we’ll consider as a future priority for development.
Sandra
Hi – I don’t seem to be able to place a hold at all. When I tried from the search results page, I was asked to log in; so I entered log-in info and clicked enter and was told that my session had timed out.
So I tried logging in to my account before placing a hold and got a 404 page
Hi P Kennedy,
We’ve had some recent issues with the place hold / log in functionality. We should be pushing across a fix for it today or tomorrow.
I see the new Find Your Way feature on the home page. Isn’t there some way to present this information without using Flash? I have Flash disabled on my computer.
Hi David,
We’re hoping to get some input on this feature. Depending on the feedback received, we may look at options other than Flash.
Sandra
Will be exploring beta site further. Meanwhile, am wondering if there is a similar blog for questions/suggestions re non-web issues. For example, when there are several reserves for a book that’s on order, why, once it arrives, doesn’t it get whisked into circulation tout de suite, instead of sitting with an “in process” status for weeks and weeks? Of course having worked in a library technical services department, I have strong suspicions it’s so that staff can read all the copies. But at TPL we don’t want patrons to think that, do we now? I am not talking about an isolated event either. I see this happen repeatedly, books on order arrive and are “in process” for more than a month as the reserves accumulate.
Sorry, I digress. Is there an equivalent blog for issues that are non-web?
Hi JEM,
Thanks for your comment and sorry for the late posting of it. We will get back to you on this.
Thanks!
Dara
Not able to place holds so far today. (500 Error – Server Problem. We’re experiencing some kind of glitch. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
Inconsistency in wording… (and spelling).
Under Borrowing Materials (http://beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca/using-the-library/borrowing-materials/) the question at the top of the page reads “How many items can I have on reserved at one time?” but further down the page it reads “How many items can I have on reserve at one time?”
And I thought that TPL used the term “hold” and not “on reserve”.
What I would love is a way to request items for purchase by the library without having to fill in a paper form.
Thanks.
The moving banner call “Finding your way” is extremely distracting and annoying when you want to type in the title of a book. It was giving me a headache during the process. Why do there have to be moving or flashing items at all?
As other have mentioned,why does the library keep changing a perfectly good existing website? The existing one is simple, straightforward and clear.
I find the scrolling pictures at the top to be a big distraction. Makes me feel a little overloaded, visually speaking. Stop the spinning, I want to get off!
Also, I don’t care for the coloured outlining of the photo elements. Doesn’t enhance the pictures at all and is actually sort of ugly. I get it– it’s to indicate the connection between the library, it’s clients, the city, everything. Maybe it would be a bit better if the outlining was the same colour in all the photos. And maybe the outline could be in a glowing red, to mimick red neon “OPEN” signs.
Hi… Just reporting a glitch. The URL was http://beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM507019&R=507019 . Clicking on any of the branch name links in the holdings list (e.g. http://beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Nr=p_cat_branch_name:Armour%20Heights ) yields the following error:
500 Error – Server Problem
Hi Diane,
We’re looking for feedback on the homepage banner and appreciate your comments.
In response to your broader question, the main reason we make changes to our website is in response to customer feedback. We hope that once you try out the new features, you’ll agree that they are improvements.
Thanks for commenting.
Hi CB,
I think the site may have been experiencing a temporary disruption when you were trying out the branch name links in the holdings. They seem to be working now, but please let us know if you experience this problem again.
Hello!
I say, finally and thanks a lot!
The one search feature on TPL web site is something I was really dreaming about many times. It works very good so far.
Much more easier and faster. One important issue that I always have with the existing version of the web site is its response times. It often takes time to download the home page… I hope the new version will be much more faster. I’ll be testing Beta version amy moment I have. All the best.
My first time comparing the beta vs. current search results for the string “old man logan” returned two completely different result sets.
The beta version returned 3 rows with none of the titles containing any of the words in my search string.
The current search returned 14 rows with all titles at least containing the string “old man”
I wanted a biography of the NY gallerist Leo Castelli so I searched the old site with these two keywords “leo castelli”. At the top of the results list I found a biography dated 2010. All the results were arranged from newest to oldest.
I tried the same keywords on the new site, but the results were not arranged with the newest at the top. The book I wanted was 4th in the results list.
So your new weighting system did not work for me in this particular case. Just thought you might like to know.
Good luck with the new site!
Hi axlemangle,
Thanks for the feedback.
The experience searching our current site and the beta site is a bit different. The results you describe sound like an issue of keyword versus exact searching.
On our current catalogue you can do an exact title search which, in this case, displays a browsable list of titles beginning with the words “old man” though there is no exact title match for “old man logan”.
Our beta site allows you to keyword search freely and then narrow your search by facets of the retrieved results. In your example, the records returned for ‘old man logan’ had the keywords somewhere in the full record though not necessarily in the title. It looks like they are in the contents notes. A search for ‘old man’ retrieves 1840 records which you can limit by format, language or other facets.
If you prefer the browse searching of the current catalogue, there is presently a link to it from the beta site.
I tested beta with a book called “A woman in Berlin”. Regular search and advanced search(all fields) returns 66 hits with “A woman in Berlin” at top. But an advanced search of title returns 36 hits where 28 of results had neither the word “woman” nor “Berlin” in them.
In the current system, I can’type in “A woman in B” and find what I needed quickly from a short list. The beta search returns 1722 hits in the regular search and 426s in advanced search and none has what I needed.
Hi Tessa,
You make a good point. The big difference between our new website and the old library catalogue is keyword searching versus browsing. The new site works more like Google or other search engines. Many library users are used to the catalogue model, where you can enter the first words of a title or author name and browse a list of exact matches. The catalogue browsing approach works well if you are absolutely sure you know the exact title of the book you want, and not so well if you’re off by a word or two.
The best of both worlds (at least in my opinion) is to have a keyword search with a type-ahead or auto-complete option enabled so that as soon as you begin typing, you are offered search options that match what you have entered so far. You can see what I mean by trying your search for “A woman in B” on Amazon.com. We may be able to implement something like this on the new website in the future.
Thanks for your feedback.
I don’t have time to read all the previous posts but it seems to me that none of the missues that were bugging me about the site have not yet been addressed. I hope I’m wrong.
They are:
1. capacity to do interlibrary loan requests online
2. capacity to suggest books for the library to acquire, online.
3. On the New Acquisitions pages, there should be a category for eaudiobooks
All in all, for my purposes, I don’t see any improvements, just changes.
I’m just trying out the beta for the first time. The new layout looks modern and is quite usable. The new search takes some getting used to, having used the old one since it’s implementation, but overall it is quite an improvement. I really like the new changes regarding the hold-ability of items, plus live in-library statuses.
Speed doesn’t seem to be an issue for me compared to the old site, which was slow to begin with.
On my iPhone, however, there was a missing plugin on the first page, however, search and everything else is usable. Speed is about the same as before, which is to say, slow, but average for mobile browsing.
For my needs, this is definitely going in the right direction. Keep up the improvements!
The Good
1. Nice clean look and feel.
2. Elimination of “BACK” link – very good!
3. Improved Search – very good!
– many search problems fixed
– new search is much cleaner and easier to use
The Bad
1. Image Links navigate away from current page.
Display of image (eg. dvd cover art) results in navigation away from current page.
The resulting page displays only the image. There are no instructions as to how to get back
to previous page. Users familiar with browsers will not think twice but inexperienced users
may encounter big problems.
An image viewer solution would be best.
2. Location details not being displayed for item.
Header is displayed for no details. Just a glitch.
3. Hours & Locations – search by intersection, postal code
– implementation of radio buttons for “Open Sundays, Open Now” is not user friendly
– use of buttons would be much better and could be grouped as other search options.
– ability to select “open late” would be useful for people who work during the day
– change “Search” button to “Find” or “Go” like in current website
I think that the site looks very clean and organized over all.
I think it would be great if:
search for items–>click on one item–>place hold on item–>now it goes back to that item’s page and it would be great if there was a button there to “go back to search items” or something along those lines, instead of having to navigate back to the search items list using the “back button”
Hope that made sense!
Hi John,
In reply to your comment about searching for ‘leo castelli’, the relevance strategy in our new site is different from the current site. At a high level, our strategy is to match on author, title and subject, in that order. The number of copies of an item acts as a tie breaker when the relevance ranking for records in a search results list is similar.
We think this will be a good strategy for most searches. However, in your example, the 2010 biography is on order and has 0 copies so it displayed 4th after other items with a similar relevance ranking but more copies. There is a date sort option that you can use, which brings the 2010 biography up to the top of the list.
Hi there, can you change the “hold” button to “Already on hold” in search results for users who are logged-in? This will be really helpful as I don’t always remember the items that have already been placed on hold if the waiting period is long. Thanks.
Hi again, there used to be an “Add to list” feature in addition to the “hold” button in the old system, and there was no limit to the number of items that I could add to my list. Is there a plan to add this feature back to the new system?
Hi JM,
I agree that an “already on hold” indicator would be a great enhancement. We’re not quite at the point of being able to achieve that yet – right now, your library account resides in a separate system that is not integrated with the rest of the website.
We intend to develop a list-making function in the near future. It helps to hear from users like you so we know which new features to prioritize.
Thanks for your comments.
Sandra, TPL Web Team
Hi, beta is a step forward. Have a question: during the sign-in process, I wonder if you have reasons for not currently offering the option of having the library card number “saved” for those who might want that option. That way, we would not need to enter (or copy/paste) the number during every sign-in(even banks offer this option for online sign-in). Passwords would ensure other users could not access your online account if you’re using a public computer. Thanks.
The new site is very nice.
I noticed you have feeds for searches.
Maybe a feed for new titles within each category would be nice.
And an option for a feed/email alert when a title, like a specific DVD, becomes available to place on hold.
Love the new site! One issue I found: your site uses addthis.com, which is a great idea to spread the word about tpl.ca through facebook etc. HOWEVER, in my case addthis.com was very slow that day which prevented the entire TPL page from loading… browsers usually wait for all elements to load from all sites before showing the page, otherwise we just get to stare at a blank page. It’s the same issue for googleanalytics.com and others. Not sure of a way to work around this, but at least you should be aware. Great work! -D
I would like to know why there has been no response to my recommendations of March 4.
I have been asking for these things from the library for a long time, and have been assured “it’s coming” for at least one of them. WHEN is it coming? Is it ever coming? I just want to know.
1. Capacity to order interlibrary loan materials online. Many many public libraries have this capacity, including many that are much smaller than TPL.
2. Capacity to recommend materials for the library to acquire, online. If it’s here, I can’t find it.
3. Why can’t you include new acquisistions of eaudiobooks in the lists of new acquisitions, as a category? In fact the categories seem to have been reduced, compared to the previous site, which concerns me.
I think there are way too many images and other stuff that I consider clutter on this new site, and that content has been sacrificed to it. It makes it inefficient. Regular users know what they want, and want to be able to get to it quickly.
Hi L.M.,
In response to your questions:
1. We do not currently have plans to offer an online interlibrary loan request form, but we do appreciate hearing about your interest in this – we rely on customer feedback to help us prioritize new features.
2. We are working with our library software vendor to develop an online purchase request form and hope to add it later this year.
3. We agree that a list of the newest eAudiobook titles would be great. The challenge in creating one is that our eAudiobooks are provided through two third-party services, and we need to ensure that the latest updates to the collections are appearing in our catalogue in a timely manner.
Thanks for your feedback.
I visit TPL on-line once a month or so using Internet Explorer at my office. (I believe that I am using version 6.0). Today was my first look at “Beta” and my experience with it was excellent – I placed a hold with the greatest of ease and if there wasn’t more information than I am accustomed to seeing about a book that I am requesting, the summary and reviews were certainly presented in a clearer fashion. I will continue to check in from time to time.
Thank you and good luck with the development of this new on-line presence.
Account settings does not show any existing settings for the account, specifically e-mail address for notification. This also true of existing web site, but should be changed so that one knows whether existing infirmation needs to be updated or not.
Hi
Look and feel is good but can you add little bit add looking perspective.some of links is not navigating like virtural chat.Performace perspective it is litttle bit slow.
while clicking the this url balnk page is getting displayed http://beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca/how_abot_xx.jsp.
Some time search is not happening exact match.
Searching results is getting displayed little bit slow.
On placing hold spelling fpr branch Gerrard/Ashdale is incorrect
I’ll continue to come back and post here with any comments/questions as I continue to peruse the “Beta” site, but from my current viewpoint, the site is pretty damn great.
Putting books on hold is easier/quicker, searching is awesome with your advanced settings and left-hand toolbar a la LinkedIn, et cetera.
My only issue thus far (if there are more I will certainly let you know) is when I try to put anything on hold that has a “%” symbol in the title it breaks. Meaning, the hold will lag and freeze on a blank page with the URL frozen in mid hold. With my basic understanding of URL/HTML/Javascript stuff is that the “%” symbol is making the database freak out. Yes, that is a technical term.
My fix for this, which I will highlight below, is to simply delete the Item’s Title in the URL when it is on the frozen screen. This works and pushes the Hold forward as the Item’s ID # is already being used for the transaction. My example is as such:
Start here: http://beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM223143&R=223143
The title is “100%”.
Hit the Place Hold button.
You get stuck on this URL:
http://beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca/placehold?itemId=37131021397690&callNum=XX&itemTitle=100%&itemAuthor=Pope,%20Paul.&returnTo=http://beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp%3FEntt%3DRDM223143%26R%3D223143
But if you delete this following portion of the URL it will continue with the hold: itemTitle=100%
Thus, the problem is solved if when someone hits the Place Hold button, the item’s Title is not passed through, just the itemID or callNum, depending on which actually matters more.
While this currently only effects titles that have the “%” in them, I would also make sure this does not effect any other odd symbols in titles, i.e., /, *, $, #, @, etc.
YAY!
I have officially completed my first Beta Test Ticket of all time!
Thunderdome!
P.S. – My comment I posted right before this one was originally not accepted. Who knows if it will be at all. Perhaps your system does not allow URLs to be posted? If so, that may be something to look at.
Huzzah!
Just FYI – the http://beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca/endecaApp/pages/books-video-music/new-items.jsp?category=Adult%20Music link way above on Dec. 19th does not work anymore.
Something happened?
As originally posted by: Alan H. | Dec 18, 2009 at 09:32
I have been using TPL’s website for years now and I’m finally pleased they have decided to produce a user friendly website for all user levels.
I’m no expert on the website codings, but I still found it very hard to use on the old website.
With this new beta site, its not only easier to use, but much faster too…. Maybe because its only in the beta trail period? We’ll find out when they lunch the site to full blast.
I give it a 3/5 rating
Hi tdcush,
Oddly enough I was just rereading 100% on the weekend (big Paul Pope fan). Yes, you’re correct that the % was causing the freakout (thanks a lot for the detailed bug report, big help)–we’ve changed the method of encoding titles (and authors) in the holds-placement URL of the latest code and it now works fine. Hopefully on the actual beta server this afternoon.
This is much better than the old website. This design much better suits the TPL.
What determines the number of new books that displays on the first page of the website?
Are these the same daily or do they refresh?
Just seems like a very small selection to me.
I really like the search but I think the holds system is broken. I was searching for “High Frequency Trading” and found my book. I signed in and clicked on hold, this brought me to the page to select the pickup location and set the hold termination date. I pressed Hold and got this
Hold Confirmation
Your catalogue session has timed out. Click OK to start a new session.
I clicked the OK button a few times but it just cycled me back to the book’s page and the cycle continued. This happens in Google Chrome and IE8.
Will your new site allow searching by ISBN numbers? It’s an excellent way to determine whether the library has a copy of a particular volume. Just a thought.
While in Chrome on a Mac computer, the Beta site will not let me sign in sometimes. I have my password saved by the browser and then when I click the “Sign In” button I get the following text above the “Library card number:” and “PIN or last 4 digits of phone number:” text boxes:
“Invalid session URL received from iBistro”
Along with the text, both text boxes that had once had the saved card number and PIN in them are left blank.
So…can’t really login in it would seem.
The new website did not load for me, a Firefox user. In fact, the wait time for catalogue search on the original site was so long I terminated the process, because I didn’t think it would ever load. That’s when I decided to try the new site, which didn’t load either. I just want to look for a book!
Good luck for the new (and old) site!