The ALA web site is one year old. Karen Schneider has some okay things to say about where she hopes the site is going. From a councilor’s perspective, I can see where progress is being made. From a user perspective what I see is not all that different from what I saw a year ago. A search engine that barely works, pages and formatting that appear and disappear without warning [anyone seen the Member and Customer Service Center lately? all I see is a login box], lack of responsiveness to member email, and an overall sense that no one in charge really “gets” the web. Smaller insults include a really hard-to-use navigational structure, “shorter” URLs that aren’t, and clunky design accentuated with ad hoc elements that seem to exist for proof-of-concept rather than to be functioning parts of an overall web site. On the bright side, I thought the online elections went pretty well. Then again, I got a paper ballot.
Month: April 2004
quiet, it’s a library?! what century is this?
I’m not sure I like how the National Chemical Society is celebrating National Library Week. [thanks dawn]
hi – 06apr
Hi. I’ve been down with the crud this week, sorry for the absence. I’ve also been preparing a few talks coming up [to say nothing of the “how to use the library databases/email” classes I teach] so any available brainpower I have had has been going to that.
bookboats and more
The Prince Rupert Library has a web site devoted to their plans to design and build a new waterfront library. My favorite part? The unusual libraries section: book bikes, book boats, book trains, you name it. [thanks thomas]
OCLC says the future is all about collaboration.
An odd and potentially dystopic poem about technology and libraries is part of OCLC’s 2003 Environmental Scan report to their membership.
My Vision
To get to the library site,
type on the computer you’re on,
in the address box at the top,
www.libraries.com [thanks doug]
To get to the library site,
type on the computer you’re on,
in the address box at the top,
www.libraries.com [thanks doug]