This is somewhat old news. From what I understand, the new website launched in May, but I have to confess that I haven’t used the Dallas Public Library website for months because I simply got tired of messing with the out-of-date online catalog. It was easier to make a trip to my local branch and ask a librarian a question, or make a book reservation through her.
But I needed an audio book for a road trip, specifically Stephen Colbert’s "I Am America (And So Can You!)". (The audio version is, of course, hilarious, but it does leave out some of the footnotes, margin notes and special features — like stickers — that come with the book. I recommend buying the book and checking out the audio book from the library.)
I ended up requesting the book with a librarian, but I went home and double checked my request online. Lo and behold, everything had changed.
It wasn’t just the opening page, which has been more user-friendly for more than a year now. The entire cataloging system is now in a new, much easier to use format.
Each item in the library’s system is now identified with the book/CD/DVD cover, then with a symbol identifying whether it’s a book, an audio book, a DVD, a VHS movie, etc. You can click on "availability" to very quickly see if a book is at your particular library, or checked in at any library, plus read a summary and reviews — while never leaving that page, so there’s none of the annoying load time or having to continually go back to the search page. If you want to see for yourself, check out the search results for "I Am America (And So Can You!)".
I haven’t had time to really try out the new system yet, but one thing I was disappointed not to find was a request placement number, telling me where I stood in line to receive an item I had requested. I found this to be a helpful feature of the Harris County Public Library system when I lived in Houston.
When I wrote the November 2006 story on neighborhood library branches and the overall Dallas Public Library system, director Laurie Evans told me that bringing the website up to date was one of the library’s priorities. It took longer than I would have liked, but I’m glad the library finally settled on a cataloging system and made the change.
