Date Received: 2026-02-16
Type: general suggestion

Date Received: 2026-02-11
Type: other

Comment Type: other
Patron Comment on 2026-02-11 12:43 PM:
 

QUESTION ABOUT "NEW" LIBRARY DIRECTORY -- instituted about 10 years ago.

1. Why are duplicate copies of DVDs not next to each other in the directory. A regular DVD might be on page 1, and the Blu Ray version is on page 2 or 3?

2. Same with books by same authors on different technologies -- a good old paper book, and either a CD, or Over drive. I was looking today for the DVD Whoopie Goldberg was in called "Bogus". First I typed in Whoopie Goldberg and found a book on page 1, and on page 3 the Overdrive version of "Bits and Pieces" . There were many items by many other Goldbergs, so next I typed in Goldberg, Whoopie and found both the Bits and Pieces book and the Overdrive edition on the same page.

Can't this directory be altered? It has not been that stellar ever since it became the New and Improved version. And most of he helpful staff are too young to know when this was a "new" improvement.

Thanks.

AADL Response on 2026-02-12 8:05 PM:
 

Hi there, thanks for your interest. We're sorry you've found our catalog search ranking; the majority of the feedback we've received about it since in launched in 2018 has been very positive.

First, you are in control of the order of your search results. When you enter search terms, the system finds all the items that match your search (as well as some items that almost match, to help correct for typos or errors), and then your results are ordered by default into a relevance rank, which orders the results based on how many times your result appears in the record, what fields your search terms appear in, and a popularity weighting, which helps a lot to get the things that people are most looking for near the top.

If that's not the order you want your results to be sorted, you can choose a different sort order from the sort by: dropdown at the top of your search results. You can sort by just added, alphabetical orders, year of release, and other options.

In short, the bluray copy will be later in the results because for some titles, particularly older titles, the DVD is more popular than the bluray, so the default relevancy ranking has them further down the result set. If you're only interested in certain formats, you can limit that before you search by choosing your format from the dropdown, or after your search by using the format filters on the left side of the screen to filter out results you're not interested in.

In regards to your search for the film Bogus from 1996; we're sorry, but we don't have that film in our collection. Our system tries very hard to find something that matches your search, and when searching a word that appears in many records in the database (such as Bogus), but the item you're looking for is not one of them, it can seem like your result is maybe down there somewhere. However, a match in the title field has a very high relevance ranking, so if you had searched just for Bogus and we had it it would have been the first result. Also, you misspelled Whoopi Goldberg's first name, and the word Whoopie appears in many records, so that might have confounded your results as well.

To sum up, our logs and metrics show us that the vast majority of searches in the catalog find the item they were looking for in the first few results. It might help to think of searching as how the needle in the haystack can bubble up to the top of the pile where you can see it, rather than conceiving of it as a static, ordered directory; online search systems don't generally work that way.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns, or encounter other searches that don't work the way you'd expect. I hope this has been helpful information. Never hesitate to ask staff when you can't find what you're looking for; they are all experts in searching our catalog and should be able to tell you definitively if we have what you're looking for. Thank you for your patience, and thank you for using your library!

-eli

Eli Neiburger
Director
Ann Arbor District Library

Date Received: 2026-02-11
Type: compliment

Date Received: 2026-02-07
Type: compliment

Date Received: 2026-02-01
Type: compliment

Date Received: 2026-01-30
Type: complaint

Comment Type: complaint
Patron Comment on 2026-01-30 3:44 PM:
 

Dear Mr Neiburger

I was using a computer at the Westgate library a while ago and two females had brought in greasy and smelly food and ate it at their library computers. I asked the male librarian about this and he said it was permissible to eat at the computers. I asked my relative who is a MD and she said this spreads germs and is very unsanitary.. As you know this is a bad flu season and we still have covid. If the library permits food, why aren't Lysol wipes available to to patrons? I think it is very disgusting and I really hope that the library stops this eating ASAP.

Thank you.

AADL Response on 2026-01-31 4:55 PM:
 

Hello, thank you for contacting us. We're sorry that you had an unpleasant experience at the library. Food is allowed in the library and at the computers; as you noted, the public health risks in the library are generally respiratory. If you encounter a mess at the library please let staff know and they will see that it gets cleaned up, and we do have disinfecting wipes available at the desk if you wish. Were you denied a wipe on request? Our apologies that others' use of the library was upsetting to you. Thank you again for sharing your feedback, and thank you for using your library.

-eli

Eli Neiburger
Director
Ann Arbor District Library

Date Received: 2026-01-17
Type: compliment

Date Received: 2026-01-07
Type: general suggestion

Date Received: 2025-12-07
Type: suggest a title

Date Received: 2025-12-01
Type: complaint