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

[Michael Paoli]

Hmmmm, perhaps so, ... it seems adequately responsive at present.

Something missing from "failing gracefully" in the design? - like
the database/system/catalog isn't available now, please try again
a while later.

Quoting Kester Allen <kester at gmail.com>:

> 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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> >
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