iBistro improves (a little)

Did you know the "hottest subject" search is "dvd-video discs?" That's what the front page of iBistro says. Can you imagine all the patrons laboriously typing that in?

With no fanfare (or explanation) some changes have been made to iBistro. Some continue the madness. Some are improvements. Some I haven't noticed. There may also be features I haven't noticed until now.

Improvements

1. They removed the call number from the initial results.

2. They changed "adult books" to plain books.

Failures

1. power search is still horrible. "Format" is worthless. Patrons click on that thinking they are going to be able to limit their search to formats like "book" and "dvd." Instead they get UNIMARC. I looked up UNIMARC in the Wikipedia, "UNIMARC: created by IFLA in 1977, it is the official MARC in France, Italy, Russia, Portugal, Greece and other countries." We really need that here in Westchester County.

2.It is still slow slow slow. Have you ever watched a patron try to place a hold at a public terminal? They get impatient and keep hitting the "place hold" link. This, of course, resets the whole process so nothing ever happens.

I know there's more, but I started this post on Dec. 1 and I just have to pull the plug and post it.

I'm going to get better

I started this because I was frustrated with the catalog and WLS as a whole. After I posted it, though, it seemed impolitic. That, coupled with my lazy nature, resulted in this blog lying fallow. Well, I'm not going to worry about being impolitic any more, so all I have to cope with is my lazy nature.

Did you know...

A title browse search in Workflows will not return shadowed items. Besides lost items (which are automatically shadowed), there were a number of new titles shadowed for a period of 45 days shortly after migration to Sirsi. These were pre-pub titles where a record was created before any library actually purchased the item. WLS has stopped that practice but there are some titles still lurking in the dark shadows.

Note that this occurs when something is shadowed at a bibliographic level, not an item or call number level. You can see if an item is shadowed this way in the detailed display MARC record screen. Only WLS can unshadow something at a bibliographic level.

Has anyone seen...

The promised new version of iBistro?
The new WLS webpage?

WLS librarians unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains

The purpose of this blog is to exchange information that will make our job easier. It is not official in any way and does not reflect anyone's opinion except my own.

Please use the comments to share tips and tricks. If I get enough, I'll try to create a wiki or a web page compiling them.

Here are my tips of the day:

• Use MUSE and Sirsi's training module together. MUSE is good for grabbing a call number for a specific item, but there is no way to limit subject searches to your particular library. You can, however, limit your search geographically in the Sirsi training module. The data is old, but at least you don't have to click "availability" on 100 items to see which books on Kabuki your library owns.
• Don't go crazy learning Sirsi now because it keeps changing. One of my colleagues spent all her waking hours learning how to place beach blanket holds on bingo books and then they added a whole new tab on top which changed everything. Now all she does is sit at her terminal muttering, "Why? Why? Why did they change that? My life has no meaning now."
  

Here are my Gripes of the Day:

• Muse keeps timing out
• We call it Muse, but our patrons see catalog and more (unless it fails in which case they see Muse)
• Broken back button on Muse
  

I wish WLS had done something like this because the incredible lack of information flow between the system and us poor, front line librarians and clerks creates hard feelings.