[oak perl] Oakland Public Library electronic catalog still has issues(? ... !)

[Kester Allen]

Hi Michael--

I think you had the misfortune to attempt a search during some sort of
database or network outage on the library's system-- I use the Oakland
library site a few times a week, and although it is very slow, I can't
remember the last time I got an actual timeout.  The overall
experience is a lot like using AOL over dialup :) but it usually
works, eventually.  I'd give your search another try.

Another nice thing about the Oakland library is that you can request
books from anywhere in the system to be delivered and held for you at
your local branch.  I'm currently working my way through the Patrick
O'Brian Aubrey/Machurin novels through them :)

--Kester


On 7/21/06, Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu> wrote:
> I think this was brought up at our last meeting.
> I did hear mention on the news some week(s) ago about them doing an
> upgrade - they weren't specific, but they did mention upgrading to
> "broadband".
>
> They've got a "Network Upgrade Completed" link on their main page:
> http://oaklandlibrary.org/PR/pr070506networkupgrade.html
> Looks like they've still got other major changes they've got targeted
> to complete by the end of the year.
>
> Well, ... I figure between 4 and 5 A.M. on a weekday probably isn't a
> peak usage period for them, ... but when I try to search - either
> their basic title search, or exact title, looking for
> Computer-Related Risks
> in both cases it eventually times out and gives me an error
> indicating that the search timed out, ... and in both
> cases the timeout period is longer than I could open a physical card
> catalog drawer and find out whether or not that particular title was
> in the catalog or not.  Their "Power Search", where I can give it more
> restrictive criteria (title word(s) risks AND author neumann) also
> likewise eventually times out.
>
> Back in, I think it was mid to late 1980s, if I recall correctly,
> they had direct public dial-up access to their catalog system -
> strictly text (terminal emulation) based, ... but at least that
> worked.
>
> It seems there must still be something pretty nastily wrong with
> their system or how it was put together or (not) maintained to have
> behavior that's this poor, if this is a typical example.
>
> Hopefully it will be "all better" by the end of the year.
>
> The Berkeley and San Francisco and San Jose public library catalogs
> are quite on-line searchable and respond in quick order, as is the
> University of California system-wide catalog system (and the first two
> don't have that title, but the latter two do).
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