What you have told us
Here you can search through numerous patron comments and the corresponding AADL replies. Search by the type of comment, in general by what the comment is regarding, or by a particular issue.
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Filter Patron Comments
Type: complaint
Regarding: catalog/searching
Patron Comment: Hi. I see you changed the computer system. Let me just say it doesn't seem to work very well. For instance, try searching (in videos) for "inspector morse the sins of the fathers". Can you explain to me how the closest match could possibly be "the blood diamond". Or why several other search for other Inspector Morse movies resulted in The Simpsons Movie as the closest match? The fuzzy logic behind that escapes me.
AADL Reply: Thanks for contacting us. We've just implemented a change to our search engine that should allow for many fewer far-flung hits. However, the title of the video you're looking for is just Inspector Morse and the volume name is just sins of the fathers: http://www.aadl.org/catalog/record/1236300 I just did a search for inspector morse and sins of the fathers was on the first page of hits. We are continuing to improve the search, and your feedback has been very helpful to us. Thanks for your patience, and please let us know if you have any further questions or trouble. Eli Neiburger Associate Director for IT and Production Ann Arbor District Library
Date Received: 2009-08-20
Type: complaint
Regarding: catalog/searching
Patron Comment: I used to be able to view the selections that were on a particular CD. Now that option is no longer offered-or I am not finding it. It's a useful option-can your system be tweaked to return it for patron searches?
AADL Reply: Thanks for contacting us. We do intend to bring this option back as soon as possible; there is some new infrastructure in place that isn't picking up that data appropriately. But it will return! And, as a sneak preview, we're working to have the tracks of the CD actually be previewable in the catalog, as in this test record: http://www.aadl.org/catalog/record/1154986 Thanks for your feedback and for your patience, and please let us know if you have any further questions or trouble. Eli Neiburger Associate Director for IT and Production Ann Arbor District Library
Date Received: 2009-08-20
Type: complaint
Regarding: catalog/searching
Patron Comment: What have you done to your catalog? It was wonderful, and suddenly from one day to the next it's a total disaster! Whatever you did, undo it and fire the person responsible.
AADL Reply: Hello, thanks for contacting us. We're sorry you're disappointed with the new catalog. Can you tell us a little more about the problems you're having, or features that you are missing? That will help us to prioritize our work as we continue improving the catalog. I am the person responsible, and I will dutifully pass your suggestion on to the library director. Thanks again for taking the time to send us your feedback, and please let us know if you have any other questions or trouble. -eli Eli Neiburger Associate Director for IT and Production Ann Arbor District Library
Date Received: 2009-08-20
Type: complaint
Regarding: catalog/searching
Patron Comment: When searchig for a book by title, the old system would take you to your entry at once. Now when I search by title I get a listing of all books with some of the words in my title. I have to scroll thru the mess to find the one I want. This is definitely NOT AN IMPROVEMENT.
AADL Reply: Hello, thanks for contacting us. We're sorry you're disappointed by the new catalog. We are working on improving the search performance, but one of our design goals was to make a more forgiving search as our logs showed us that many patrons were being told that there were no matches when we had the item they were looking for, but they had used an overly specific or mistaken search term. You will likely find better results if you use quotes around the title you're looking for, just like google; that will ensure you only get the exact results for your search. Thanks very much for taking the time to send in your feedback. We're actively working to improve these issues and your feedback is very helpful. Thanks for your patience, and please let us know if you have any further questions or trouble. Eli Neiburger Associate Director for IT and Production Ann Arbor District Library
Date Received: 2009-08-20
Type: complaint
Regarding: catalog/searching
Patron Comment: The new catalog screen. Where are reviews that you used to have on books? I liked them. :(
AADL Reply: Hello, thanks for contacting us. The reviews and summaries were temporarily disabled by the upgrade, but we've got them back up now, right where they were on the search results screen. We are still planning to add them back to the full item record page. Thanks for your patience, and please let us know if you have any further questions or trouble. Eli Neiburger Associate Director for IT and Production Ann Arbor District Library
Date Received: 2009-08-19
Type: complaint
Regarding: catalog/searching
Patron Comment: What on earth has happened to your catalog search engine? Check the result one gets if searching for Title: Thirteen, in Books. It used to be that books titled "Thirteen" would come up at the top of the list. I happen to want a book called "Thirteen", which exists in the catalog, but doesn't even make the first page of a search. This is different to every library catalog I've seen before. I hope this is an error, and if so that it will be corrected soon.
AADL Reply: Hello, thanks for contacting us. This is an extremely helpful example and we will use it to continue to tune the search engine. Your result should absolutely be first in the search. Part of our design goal here is to make a catalog search is much more forgiving, because our search logs show us that many patrons search for things we have but don't find them because they've used mistaken or misspelled search terms. So part of the solution is a transition to a text matching search using the conventions of web searching. However, it needs a lot of tuning to work well in our environment, and feedback like your is invaluable during the break-in period to help us make the catalog work well in lots of different situations. Thanks for your patience and for your feedback, and please let us know if you have any further questions or trouble. Eli Neiburger Associate Director for IT and Production Ann Arbor District Library
Date Received: 2009-08-18
Type: complaint
Regarding: catalog/searching
Patron Comment: What happened to the reviews for books? I can't seem to find them in the new format. Also, I prefer the books listed in order of newest to oldest for an author. If I've already been reading a series, I don't like to have to keep scrolling down a page or on to the next page for the most recent book. Eeks, what have you done?
AADL Reply: Hello, thanks for contacting us. The reviews and summaries will be back shortly, we're working on that. Also, you can sort any set of search results by newest first or oldest first, so you could do an author search for your desired author and then choose 'sort by: Pub date: Newest' to get your results with the newest first. Thanks for your patience, and please let us know if you have any further questions or trouble. Eli Neiburger Associate Director for IT and Production Ann Arbor District Library
Date Received: 2009-02-20
Type: complaint
Regarding: catalog/searching
Patron Comment: I was trying to us a computer to look up a book and some kid was using the catalog computer to look at videos.
AADL Reply: This comment was submitted anonymously.
Date Received: 2009-02-07
Type: complaint
Regarding: catalog/searching
Patron Comment: Just to let you know once again that I'm trying to watch the series "House" on DVD. On the search page I put "Title", then "House", then "DVD" and hit search. I get eighteen pages of things that have little or nothing to do with "House". In fact, I have to go to page NINE before I find the series at all, and then they are scattered over the next eight pages after that. This is nuts. What does "Dora the Explorer" have to do with "House"? What does "Cheers" have to do with "House"? And why do we only have three seasons of the series? I've reported this before, and I've taken the problem to the reference desk at Mallets Creek. Weeks go by, and nothing is done.
AADL Reply: Hello, thanks for contacting us. I'm afraid that you must not have received the response I sent to your question from January 19. To recap, while it would be nice if the catalog could know exactly what you're looking for, the current technology can only give you the items that match the search terms you provide. As you know, "House" is a very common word; In the situation you described, all those other items also have the word 'house' in their title or description. In this case, you just need to be slightly more specific so that the catalog knows which house you're talking about. I did searches for either "house m.d." or "house hugh laurie" and both came up with only the House DVDs you were looking for. Here's a URL for your convenience: http://www.aadl.org/cat/seek/search/X?house%20m.d.&searchscope=24&m=g&SORT=D&topformsub=1 Thanks for your patience, and please let us know if you have any further questions or trouble. Eli Neiburger Associate Director for IT and Production Ann Arbor District Library
Date Received: 2009-01-17
Type: complaint
Regarding: catalog/searching
Patron Comment: I wanted to see Season One of the t.v,. show House, so I put in the following: Title-House-DVD, then haed to wade through EIGHT PAGES of seemingly unrelated things to find what I wanted. What's the deal? What does Cheers have to do with House? What does Dora the Explorer have to do with House? It's all too weird and too slow.
AADL Reply: Hello, thanks for contacting us. We're sorry that you've had trouble with the catalog. In the situation you described, all those other items also have the word 'house' in their title or description. In this case, you just need to be slightly more specific so that the catalog knows which house you're talking about. I did searches for either "house m.d." or "house hugh laurie" and both came up with only the House DVDs you were looking for. Here's a URL for your convenience: http://www.aadl.org/cat/seek/search/X?house%20m.d.&searchscope=24&m=g&SORT=D&topformsub=1 Thanks for your patience, and please let us know if you have any further questions or trouble. Eli Neiburger Associate Director for IT and Production Ann Arbor District Library