TPL

Looking Ahead to Faceted Searching - Part 2

In a previous post we briefly discussed the history of library search technologies as a lead-up to our forthcoming addition of faceted search technologies to the library catalogue. 

But we didn't say all that much about what faceted search is.  So what is faceted searching and why is it exciting for improving the library catalogue?

Faceted Search Defined

A search of the web will turn up quite a few results for the question "what is faceted search?"; I like the definition offered by the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval (SIGIR does a lot of work in areas of computer technology of specific interest to libraries):

The web search world, since its very beginning, has offered two paradigms:

• Navigational search uses a hierarchy structure (taxonomy) to enable users to browse the information space by iteratively narrowing the scope of their quest in a predetermined order, as exemplified by Yahoo! Directory, DMOZ, etc.
• Direct search allows users to simply write their queries as a bag of words in a text box. This approach has been made enormously popular by Web search engines, such as Google and Yahoo! Search.

Over the last few years, the direct search paradigm has gained dominance and the navigational approach became less and less popular. Recently a new approach has emerged, combining both paradigms, namely the faceted search approach. Faceted search enables users to navigate a multi-dimensional information space by combining text search with a progressive narrowing of choices in each dimension.

From a 2006 SIGIR conference on faceted search

An Old Idea in the Library World

Faceted search as an idea is related to (though not identical with) the concept of faceted classification, a fairly old idea in the library world.  See the Bliss Classification System or the Colon Classification System, both developed by librarians who considered the Dewey Decimal Classification System insufficient for describing and categorizing the richly varied world of information.

"Navigate a multi-dimensional information space"

A piece of information (let's say a book from here on out for the sake of convenience) has many different possible points of access that might be of interest to someone looking for it.  This is where the "facets" terminology comes from--each possible access point is one "facet" of the whole piece of information.

Some of these are "flat", such as the name of an author or the title of a book, but for others it may be possible to identify a hierarchy from general to specific, such as for geographic area of coverage:

• Earth > Nortth America > Canada > Ontario > Toronto

A huge range of possible books exist within the geographic coverage of "Earth".  A narrower subset of that range geographically covers "North America", and a narrower subset within that covers "Canada".   And so on... You could also consider more granular hierarchies such as having "Western Hemisphere" between "Earth" and "North American Continent".

But hierarchical subject browsing based on a subject heading system such as the Library of Congress' has been a feature of some online library catalogues in the past.  The real power of faceted searching comes with...

"Combining text search with a progressive narrowing of choices in each dimension"

You may already use faceted search and not realize it.  The ability to start with a free-text search and then narrow down your results within various dimensions is a common one on e-commerce sites:

The screenshot to the right show the websites of Canadian Tire and eBay using faceted search to narrow within a free-text search.

You get a lot of power from this ability to search freely and then progressively narrow your search by the available facets of the retrieved results.  Ideally you get the best of both worlds in a user-friendly manner--you can look for whatever you want, but the system will then progressively guide you through its particular information structure to improve precision, eliminate false hits, and help you find information that's on target.

If you've asked a librarian to look up a book (we have 99 branches to do this at if you feel the need) you've probably seen them pull relevant results very quickly, because librarians have extensive training in (among other things) the particular way in which catalogue records are organized.

A big part of what the web team hopes to do with faceted search is leverage our existing structured records (subject headings and other access points in the catalogue record) to make searching easier without having pre-existing knowledge of how the information is organized##.

Faceted Search Technology and the Library

For an example of faceted search working in a library catalogue, you can visit the North Carolina State University Library.

The specific faceted search technology we'll be using is made by Endeca.  An interview with one of the founders in 2008 gives some insights into the origins of the technology (and it warms my librarian heart to see the acknowledgement of S.R. Ranganathan as one of the original thinkers of faceted search).

The web team aims to have faceted search technology in place for Toronto Public Library by late summer.  Watch this space for further announcements.

Looking Ahead to Faceted Searching - Part 1

The web team's work at Toronto Public Library is a combination of day-to-day maintenance (keeping our existing web and interactive services working and their content updated) and longer-range projects to improve, revise or replace existing services and resources, or introduce completely new ones. 

A major current project is the introduction of faceted search capabilities for the website and the library catalogue as part of the larger redesign of our website.  To understand what this is and why it's a major thing for us we have to talk a little about the history of search, especially as it relates to libraries.

Pre-Electronic Search In Libraries

Before computerized catalogues the primary means of access to books was the card catalogue:

{made with the Catalog Card Generator}

Some of you may remember using card catalogues (perhaps even fondly).  I can't claim total accuracy in the one above because I barely remember using them.  They took up a tremendous amount of space to hold all those cards and were difficult to keep in good order!  Many of the cards were cross-references to other cards to let you know things like:

• The correct spelling in the catalogue of an author's name, if there were variants
• The correct title of a book with variant titles
• The correct subject heading in the controlled vocabulary used to make sure synonyms and related terms (dog, canine, hound, puppy) were grouped together, usually the Library of Congress Subject Headings

Card catalogues relied on highly structured systems for organizing information that required a certain degree of expertise and experience to use.  A major role of the librarian was to assist in the use of the catalogue to help you locate the book you wanted, as well as maintain it. 

Because card catalogues took up so much space, they had very few access points by which you could search for information.  Typically you had:

• AUTHOR cards, to let you find out which books the library had by a particular author
• SUBJECT cards, to locate books on a particular subject--as mentioned above, the synonym problem required the use of controlled vocabulary
• TITLE cards, to locate books by title

The Card Catalogue Goes Online

This glosses over an enormous amount of library history, but take a look at this screenshot from our current library catalogue:
 
Notice anything familiar?  Those same card catalogue access points are still there! 

Partly this is because they're good access points.  Most people looking for a book (or a film, or a CD, or another kind of recorded information) are looking for it by one of three broadly defined things:

• Who made it? (author)
• What's it called? (title)
• What's it about? (subject)

Past and Future of Library Searching

Libraries have been doing search technology for a very long time (long before computerized search systems even became possible), and to really understand why the modern-day library catalogue is the way it is, you have to understand some of that history.  The pre-amalgamation North York Public Library began doing computerized cataloguing in 1982, quite a few years before the World Wide Web even came into existence, and the earliest forms of computerized information storage for libraries basically just replicated the card catalogue in computer form (and in many cases were used only by the staff to maintain the catalogue and print new cards as needed, not by the public).

Our existing catalogue records still have a lot of value--it's hard to beat a library catalogue for precision searching, but they're not always very easy to use.  How do we make use of that precision in our records while increasing usability for our public?

As you've probably guessed one answer is faceted searching:

{Screen of the North Carolina State University Library catalogue, using faceted search}

In the next post we'll talk about what faceted searching is and how we envision it working at Toronto Public Library to improve the catalogue experience.

Ask A Librarian Beta Links on the Catalogue

Toronto Public Library is always looking for ways to make it easier for you to get the help you need.

Starting May 5th, for two weeks, you will see a new set of links on the catalogue aimed at providing you quick access to help where you need it.

Why don't you see the links every time you visit the catalogue?

To help us make sure we can meet demand we elected to test this with a small set of customers.  As a result you will see the links on some visits to the catalogue and not on others during the two week period. We hope to make the links permanent very soon for all your catalogue visits.

A few words about recent catalogue and account issues

We have been working hard to resolve the recent problems with the library catalogue and access to customer accounts.

What’s the problem?

Over the past several weeks, the two servers we were using for the catalogue were having trouble meeting demand. We added a third server, but unfortunately it didn’t perform well and ended up making the problems worse. Last Friday, we introduced another new server to replace it, which seems to have addressed the access and response issues that you experienced.

Why is it so hard to get it right?

Some of the challenges with our catalogue arise from the fact that Toronto Public Library is so much larger than most other libraries. System configurations that have worked for other libraries do not always translate well when scaled for Toronto’s size.  We're also coping with a recent increase in traffic to our website.

What has been fixed?

Problems with extreme slowness, timeouts, and error messages when trying to search or access your account should now be resolved. We continue to monitor this very closely, so please tell us if you are still experiencing timeouts or extreme slowness.

What still needs fixing?

We still have work to do to address usability issues with the catalogue. Some of the high-priority issues to be addressed include:

• After clicking “Your Account” and signing in, you are taken to the search screen instead of the account screen. You have to click on “Your Account” a second time.

• After placing a hold, you are returned to the “Place Hold” form rather than to your search results.

• It’s not currently possible to delete the list of missed holds that display in your account.

We continue to work with our vendor to improve the stability and responsiveness of the catalogue. We are also in the process of implementing a new search engine that will significantly enhance the usability, accessibility, and openness of our online services. In the meantime, we recognize the importance of the catalogue and are working to resolve the issues as quickly as possible. We appreciate your continued feedback.

*UPDATED* Catalogue problems this week

UPDATE: As of Friday evening, we've got a new server up and running, which should make the catalogue much more stable. Thanks for your patience, everyone.

*  *  *  *

We're having some intermittent problems with our catalogue. You may be finding it really slow to respond, and you may also be unable to sign in to your account.

We're working to resolve the problems as quickly as possible. If you need immediate assistance with your account, you can contact your local branch or phone or email Answerline.

We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to have everything back to normal soon.

A Quick Post-mesh Post

As mentioned previously, members of the web team attended the recent mesh conference and found it quite valuable.  I was expecting to be somewhat out of place as a librarian (albeit a "web" librarian) but the great strength of the conference was the diversity of voices and perspectives.  I got many insights into potential directions for library web services that I'm not sure I would otherwise have found.  A part of this was just talking to tech-savvy people who still thought of the library as "books only" (not that this isn't still a big part of our identity!) and thinking as a result about how we might make our web presence better known--I'm hoping at least a few of them will start using Safari Computer Bookshelf or some of our other tech-focused resources (we have a ton of electronic journals and magazines dealing with computer science, information technology and technology in general available with your library card through our website).  Thanks to everyone I met at #mesh09 who shared ideas and thoughts with me.

I wanted to quote (perhaps paraphrase) two lines from Mayor Miller's second-day keynote, where he discussed plans for opening up city data and using web services to improve civic life that I thought were of especial relevance to the library's own efforts:

• "When we share our information and open up our data, individuals will create new applications that benefit both the community and the city."
• "In the future, systems can be redesigned to ensure they are open."

We have written previously on "Toronto 2.0" and our vision of the library's place in it and our efforts to open up our own data.  Major attention is being paid as part of our ongoing redesign of the library's web presence to changing the "underlying" model and structure of our data to make it more open, both to improve our own ability to build interesting and helpful web services in the future, and to enlist the ideas and skills of the community in adding value to our data, like the Red Rocket iPhone application has done with data shared by the Toronto Transit Commission.

So we are on board here at the web team with the vision of a more open city (the library is a city service,  though we report to an arms-length board rather than to the city directly), and hope to make some pretty exciting announcements relatively soon about our own data-sharing.  Watch this space! :)

I Didn't Know You Had That... Part 3

Global Intelligence from Wherever You Are

You may have heard of the well-known international weekly news magazine, The Economist, but did you know about the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research wing of the same company specializing in country, management and industry analysis?  

The focus is on business decision making, but there's a lot for students or those with a general interest in world affairs in ViewsWire (you'll need a library card to log in--get one, it's free), a global current awareness and analysis information source from the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Like the CIA World Factbook and similar information sources, the division of information is regional and geographical, but ViewsWire strongly emphasizes current awareness, with dozens of new or updated articles released daily about the latest developments worldwide.

I know from my days as a reference librarian that "country profile"-type projects are common at all academic levels.  A few more subscription resources from the library that can be useful for these type of projects (again, you'll need your library card handy):

• Encyclopedia Britannica Online has some useful geography-focused web tools in addition to lengthy encyclopedia entries for countries.
•  Grolier Online features Lands and Peoples (select it from the list of resources on the left-hand side), an elementary-level encyclopedia of world cultures, countries and history.
• The Gale Virtual Reference Library (discussed previously in this blog post) has numerous useful reference books under categories such as History and Nation and World, at various academic levels.

Last Time On "I Didn't Know You Had That..."

This is an ongoing series highlighting interesting resources, features or other aspects of TPL's web services.  If you've missed previous parts:

• Part 2: Toronto Star / Globe and Mail historic archives
• Part 1: Gale Virtual Reference Library

Web Team @ mesh 2009

Members of the web team will be attending mesh - Canada's Web Conference this week on April 7th and April 8th, and we hope to do some posting after (and possibly during) keynotes and sessions with our impressions and how they tie into where the library is and is going with web services.  We've written in this space before about our interest in technology and civics and opening our data, both themes in abundance at the conference.  So watch the blog in the next few days (and say hi to us at mesh if you run into us)!

Follow TPLer's on twitter

http://www.twitter.com/waharnum
http://www.twitter.com/drenton

I Didn't Know You Had That... Part 2

Back In the Old Days...

We made passing reference to them in the previous post in this series, but did you know you can get the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star going back to the 19th century from the Toronto Public Library website?  Both are available through a similar interface (you'll be asked for your library card number, so have it ready or get a library card if you don't yet have one--it's free).

Most online newspaper archives present articles in a web-based format that removes them from their original context (position above or below the fold, surrounding ads, etc), but these ones actually present searchable high-resolution scans of the original newspaper pages.  This means you can do things like see a copy of the front page of the newspaper for the day you or a family member were born, or admire the vintage ads surrounding the articles.  This format isn't as easy to browse as some others, but it's a lot closer to having a real copy of the newspaper (from back to 1844 for the Globe--how cool is that?) in front of you than a lot of other web-based resources of this sort.

Last Time On "I Didn't Know You Had That..."

This is an ongoing series highlighting interesting resources, features or other aspects of TPL's web services.  If you've missed previous parts:

• Part 1: Gale Virtual Reference Library

I Didn't Know You Had That... Part 1

The Disclaimer: Many of the links in this post will prompt you for your library card number and your PIN, so have your card ready (or your number memorized).  If you don't have a card it's easy and free to get one if you live, work, go to school or pay property tax in Toronto.

The Preamble (you can skip to The Good Stuff if you just want to see some cool web stuff TPL has available that you might not know about)

A challenge libraries face in providing web-based information is the extreme diversity of sources and the requirements to access them.  Along with the open web (the kind of thing you find with Google or another search engine) there is a huge range of subscription-only services that require payment to access and are not typically indexed by search engines because of this.  The library purchases group access to a wide range of these services, allowing you access from home to a wide range of content unavailable on the open web, using your library card.  This includes everything from newspaper archives (some going back to the 19th century) to auto repair manuals to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Ideally we would like a  (relatively speaking) uniform means of access to all our web content, similar to what we have for our books.  But the current common means of access to books is the result of hundreds of years of development of storage methods and well-established systems for organizing them on the shelf and providing topical access to them in catalogues.  The web is a much younger information source than books (and it can sometimes be hard to find the right book as well!).

So we work with tools that are better than nothing, but still not ideal, such as union searching (doing simple searches of multiple subscription sources from different vendors in one go and presenting the results in a single interface).  As the web matures and standards for accessing information from subscription-based sites become better-implemented among vendors, we are hopeful that we can purchase or build better tools for providing access.

The Good Stuff

This is a roundabout way of saying that TPL's website is a gateway to tons of great content that you can't find for free on the web, but it can be difficult sometimes to get the word out.  Safari Books Online has been mentioned on this blog previously, but we're going to be posting regularly in the future to highlight other resources available through the website that you may not be aware of.

The first we'd like to highlight is the Gale Virtual Reference Library.  Gale is a major reference book publisher and a substantial amount of their reference books (totaling hundreds of thousands of pages of content) are available to you as a TPL library card holder from anywhere that can access the web.

The front page of Gale Virtual Reference Library is a list of available categories of reference books (along with almost universal search box).  Clicking the + beside a category (Arts, Business, Technology, etc) will expand the category to show the individual reference works available.  There's a lot, but some notables are:

Business > Business Plans Handbook (Volumes 1-14 available).  An extensive collection of business plans used by small business entrepreneurs seeking funding.  Useful to students studying business and potential entrepreneurs.  A wide variety of plans for different business enterprises are compiled in the 14 volumes available so far.

Environment > Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia (17 volumes) and Grzimek's Student Animal Life Resource (21 volumes) are tremendous surveys of the animal kingdom (the Encyclopedia is nearly 10,000 pages).  The Student Animal Life Resource is more appropriate in level to the higher elementary grades compared to the Animal Life Encyclopedia (written for an older audience).  Great for school projects or for general interest.

Literature > UXL Graphic Novelists (3 volumes).  Over 600 pages in three volumes containing biographies of illustrators, comic book writers, manga authors, cartoonists and others in the broad field of the "graphic novel".  Fills a gap for students writing about graphic novelists or their works, and of browsing interest to readers of the genre.

This very small selection of the reference books available through just the Gale site is somewhere in the range of 20,000 pages of reference material!  There's a lot more there for all sorts of topics--have a look.  And this is only one site out of dozens that you have access to as a TPL cardholder--we'll be featuring more in the future on this blog.

Toronto 2.0

I was thrilled to open up this morning's Globe and see an article about the City of Toronto and open data:  Toronto 2.0: Data Sharing Source.

A few weeks ago we created a post about opening up the Library's data because making our content accessible and mash-able is a priority for the Library.

Today's article talks about Toronto being a real leader in social computing uptake and also a innovator in civic engagement.  It specifically talks about Change Camp, which took place last weekend.  Change Camp's mandate: 

"How do we re-imagine government and citizenship 

in the age of participation?"

At the Library we imagine many possibilities.   Like you looking for a book from your mobile phone and then being able to get TTC, driving or walking directions to the nearest available copy.  We also imagine you browsing the internet and being able to see related Library resources and programming information.  We're not entirely there yet, but the willingness and the motivation is and the capabilities are definitely coming along.

The web team will be at Toronto's Mesh Conference again this year and are looking forward to a lively discussion about social computing and open data that meets civic needs.  So if you happen to also be attending, make sure you stop one of us for a chat.

It is an exciting time for us here at the Library and for all Torontonians!

Library tip for accessing news online: Do you ever get a "To continue reading, you will need to purchase this article." message from newspaper websites?  That message is your cue to go to the Library's website where you will able to find, read and print the full text of newspapers articles that are no longer available through the news company's website.  As always, it's free, with your Library card.

*UPDATED* Issues with catalogue searching

UPDATE: The problems reported between December 24th and the 29th are resolved. All searching and linking within the catalogue is back to normal.

Catalogue - your feedback so far

We knew that using the web as a feedback mechanism and engaging in online consultation was a pretty good idea but we are really pleased to see how good a job it does at connecting us with our customers and ideas.  Already we've received a great tip that will help our Linux community (thanks Matt!), and have also received some valuable feedback and suggestions about the new catalogue.  

Delivering an improved TPL online experience based on an engaging and honest discussion with our online audience is our goal and I think we’re off to a good start.  We thank you for participating and commenting.

The team and I have been reviewing the feedback received over the past week from comments on this blog, sent to Answerline and gathered during our Beta Test of the catalogue last month. Thank you for taking the time to use the new catalogue and tell us what you think.

Here is a summary of your feedback so far.

Missed Holds – Why are these holds displaying? I picked up all my holds and How can I remove notices I no longer want?
This is a new feature.  It allows you to see your missed holds, all holds not picked up since February 2008 are showing up in your account. We know this may be confusing, especially if you have placed a new hold on the same title. Unfortunately, you cannot remove them yourself, however, they will be cleared automatically on a regular schedule, so this situation is only temporary.

Your Account/Sign In takes you to the search screen instead of the account screen.
This issue is a high priority, and we are close to having a fix.

More personalized features like being able to track a "wish list" and enabling me to see my borrowing history.
These are both definitely on our list of desired features. Using the new "Link to This Page" feature you are now able to bookmark and copy links  of items, as an interim step this may be a useful alternative. And next year we will enable you to share items directly to common social networks such as Facebook, Digg and Delicious.  So, more is coming in this area in the near term and further out we hope to implement a fulsome TPL solution.

The holds list in Your Account no longer includes author, and you can't sort by author name.
You can see the author's name by clicking the link to the item record, but we understand that you also liked seeing this information on the account screen and being able to sort on it. The number of sortable columns presents a design challenge on the holds screen. We will investigate possible design changes that might allow us to add an author column.

Some of you would prefer to see all their account information on a single page instead of in tabs.  Can it be a setting in Your Account?
Based on customer comments, usability testing, and beta testing, we have found that the majority of users prefer the tabbed display.  There are no further levels of personalization possible at this time. We hope customers who prefer the single page layout are able to get used to the new layout and find it intuitive.

The Your Account summary screen listing for the number of holds does not include items that are in transit or on the pickup shelf. Some of you find this confusing/misleading, especially because in transit and pickup shelf items are included in the maximum number of holds allowed - it looks like you can place more holds, but you can't. We are working to improve the labelling to clarify this.

Screen width - some of you have report having to scroll horizontally to access the search buttons or other information.   We are working on fixing this.

Why doesn't my name appear when I login anymore?  -  This feature was implemented to improve the privacy of customers who use the catalogue from public computers (e.g. from our library branches or internet cafés).  In place of your name you can now display a 'ScreenName'  which you can set in your account settings page.  "For more information about this please see this FAQ.

Where are the links to "More by this author"/"More on this topic"?
When you click on "Full Details" to display the complete information for an item, the author and subject headings you see here are links that you can click to find more matching titles. (Note: if the result of clicking one of these links is just the same item record you were already looking at, that means there are no other titles matching the author or subject.)

Library Elf no longer works for my Toronto Public Library account.
We are aware of this problem and are not sure why the recent changes to our catalogue have impacted Library Elf, since we are still using the same technology we have had in place since February 2008. Library Elf is a private company not affiliated or officially supported by TPL.  Email notification for holds and overdue items is available directly from your Toronto Public Library account. Enter your email address under the Account Settings tab to begin receiving email notices.

Known issues (e.g., slowness, date format, not being able to place holds on items you currently have checked out) - why haven't you fixed this stuff too?
We know these problems are significant. We are constantly working to improve our service.   We will continue to keep you posted through this blog about ongoing updates about our efforts to improve the catalogue.

*UPDATED* The improved catalogue is live, almost as expected..

So, after quite a complex process we have most of the new features implemented on the improved catalogue.

There are a few outstanding items we are working quickly to resolve.  One in particular that you will notice.

The Your Account link *STILL* goes to the home  page. There is something getting in the way of making this work properly for you in our live system and we continue to work on this.

There are also two issues in Your Account that we are also focusing on.  The account settings page is missing buttons and the feature that allows you to change between telephone and email notification is not working.

Other than these, the other new features are working.  We appreciate your patience while we implement the improved catalogue. 

Should you notice any issues other than those listed above, please let us know by contacting the Library’s Answerline service at (416-393-7131) or online through our customer feedback form.

*UPDATED DECEMBER 12*

Your Account now contains all submit/renew and cancel buttons. 

We are also receiving feedback on two other items:

1) Can I remove items from the Cancelled Hold Section?  Unfortunately you cannot, we wanted it to work this way but it was not technically possible.  We are working on only displaying items you've missed in the last 4 weeks.  Items older than that would drop off the list.  The development of this is in process.

2) Why doesn't my name appear when I login anymore?  The system was updated to improve the privacy of customers who use the catalogue from public computers (e.g. from our library branches or internet cafés).  In place of your name you can now display a 'ScreenName' which you can set in your account settings page.  For more information about this please see this FAQ.

Catalogue Usability

As you may have read in this post, an improved version of the catalogue is going live tomorrow. We have received several comments around usability issues and wanted to specifically address the issue of usability and our catalogue.

What you will see in this version of the catalogue

Your account sign-in – This action now goes to Your Account.

Page titles and permanent links – With this function we ensure that each item in the catalogue has a permanent link that you can use to share or bookmark in your browser.  Along with this we ensured that the bookmark would be titled appropriately.

Warnings when you are about to affect all items (e.g. item renewal and cancelling holds) – This was implemented to stop you from unexpectedly affecting all your holds with a single click.

Screen refresh – When you renew items or cancel holds, the screen now refreshes after you take your action.  This ensures you see the results of your action and don't take the same action again.

Hold suspension process simplified – To help make this process easier for everyone, we've introduced a way to activate or suspend holds without specifying a date range.  You may also continue to indicate a date range should you wish to do so.

Headings, labels and error messages – Previously ambiguous, misleading and/or repetitive.  We've made numerous improvements to this area.  We have also used better text size for headings to improve scanning of pages and have removed headings that repeat where necessary.

Links that look and behave like links – As much as possible, we've make all the links look and behave like links – (e.g. underlined, mouse pointer changes to the 'hand' icon).

Formatting and page width –The catalogue content is better formatted so you can find what you are looking for more easily.   For example, the New Titles lists are now broken up into sections with headings as opposed to a list with a system order.  We also fixed the width of the catalogue so the viewing experience on monitors of all sizes is the same.

Spacing – To improve your ability to scan through content on pages, much more space and 'breathing room' has been added.

What you won't see

The catalogue is a proprietary software and in some instances we are unable to control its functionality.  As a result, some things we really wanted to do for our customers were simply not possible and are still under investigation and consideration. These include:

Sign-in from anywhere in the system – Allowing a customer to login and return to the site where they left off (e.g. mid searching or hold process).

Using the browser back button – The catalogue does not give the expected result from using the 'back button' on your web browser.  This means you must use the in–page back option (now better positioned). TIP: If you find yourself caught out (I know I regularly do!) having used the browser back button, hit the browser refresh button and the page you are looking for should display.

Human readable URLs you can copy and paste from the address bar – the catalogue adds special codes into the URLs to indicate that you, a specific website user, from a specific computer have requested information so that the information can be sent back to your computer browser.  This instance of one person using the catalogue is called a 'session' and it is the session codes that appear in the URLs.  Some pages work without the session codes, and on these pages we have provided a Link To This Page feature.   The other challenge with the links to catalogue pages and items is that the links are codified and reference things like 'uhtbin' and 'cgisirsi' when what you really need to see are author names, titles, search terms in clear readable language.

Search assistance – such as spell check or “did you mean” – the catalogue does not have this functionality, and we are not able to add it to this product.

Sort and limit options for all types of search results – Ideally, you would be able to sort any set of search results into the order that works best for you (e.g., alphabetically by author) or narrow the results to include only what you’re looking for (e.g., only DVDs at Downsview branch). Unfortunately, the catalogue allows sorting and limiting only for keyword search results. The results of a browse search (exact title, author, or subject) and the lists of Our Newest Titles, Award Winners, and Best Sellers cannot be sorted or limited.

An easy way to tell which items you can place holds on – “Place Hold” buttons still show up for many items that you are not able to put holds on. We have not been able to find a way to consistently suppress them for materials that are not holdable. This is something we’re still working on.

Standard accessibility features, such as the capability to resize text using the controls in your web browser – Accessibility is very important to the library and will be a major focus of our website redesign project.

Perfection – Things that seem simple to achieve may, within the constraints of this technology, be unattainable.  We've endeavoured to affect every issue we possibly can and continue to work closely with our supplier to improve things even more.  We know there are more things we can do and we have a long list of outstanding issues we are continuing to work through.  We also know how important this system is to your library experience and are committed to ongoing  and regular improvements.   Thanks for everyone's patience, and keep the comments coming – we love your engagement and feedback.

Updated Version of Library Catalogue Launching December 11

The library is happy to announce some improvements to our catalogue. The new version, launching on Thursday, December 11, includes a number of changes you’ve been asking for. For the past two weeks, we have been beta testing these changes with a group of library users, and their feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Your Account

Customer accounts have been reorganized and common functions have been made easier to use. Changes include:

• Separate screens for the account summary, checked-out items, holds, and account settings

• Separation of holds into sections: available for pickup, in transit, and still on hold

Also:

• A simplified process for making holds active or inactive
• A display of missed holds that you did not pick up on time.
• The option to choose a “screen name” that displays at the top of each page when the customer is logged in.

Item records

Item records are easier to read. Repeated headings have been removed, and it’s easier to scan to see whether any copies are in the library

Other Changes

• A permanent link feature makes it easy to bookmark or save links to individual items or search results

Also:

• The catalogue’s layout has been improved. Spacing and alignment have been adjusted to improve readability
• Some changes have been made to make keyword searching work better
• Error messages have been rewritten to be more meaningful

Outstanding Issues

Other improvements we would like to make have not yet been implemented.

These issues include:

• Slow response time - reported by a few customers
• Holds on “on order” items do not display your position in the holds queue
• Search results do not always seem relevant

The library is working hard to resolve these issues. While these issues are important to us and our users, they will take more time and work to resolve. With continued feedback from our users, we will be better able to serve our customers.

We will continue to report on our progress through regular updates on this blog.

After the launch

We hope you'll agree that the new version of the catalogue is a significant improvement. During and after the launch, customers can direct questions to the Library’s Answerline service (416-393-7131). We also welcome your feedback through comments on this blog or the library's official customer feedback form.

Thank you for your interest and support.

Opening up our data - after all, distributing information is what we do

The Toronto Public Library is working to open up its data for people to use. After all, distributing information is what we do. By enabling Torontonians to access and use the information that the library has, including its branch location information, program and event information and the content within our library catalogue, we truly embody the mandate of a public library.

What this means is anyone with the skills and inclination could list, display or integrate linkable TPL data into their website. 

Some useful examples might be a community group who wants to show the nearest libraries or upcoming library programs in their neighbourhoods on their website, a special interest group would be able to list relevant linkable content within our collections or an individual would be able to easily blog about a TPL item, event, service or branch.

So in that light, as a first step we have made it easier for people to take branch location information and map it for their own needs.

Use our stuff on your own site

If you're building a website about your community or local business, or just hacking around and want to show nearby Toronto Public Library branch locations in Google maps, you can use this data just like we did on our hours and locations page.

You can take the geocoding the library has used for our Google maps and use it on your site.

 Link to Toronto Public Library's branch Google maps data.

There is a really good tutorial, some handy Google documentation and a developer forum if you're looking to get started with Google maps.

This is our first "API"  and there is much more to come.  In addition to this, our blogs already enable content syndication through RSS.

We are working to open up other sources like our library catalogue and our programs and events listings. As we move forward, we are looking at ways make our site more modular and easier to integrate using mashups, semantic-markup, microformats, embeddable widgets, APIs, and further content syndication.

(Warning, unapologetic Library service plug follows)

If you fully understood this post and found it relevant to your interests or profession, you'll be happy to know that you can get *every* O'Reilly book online through the library with your library card. Either search the library catalogue for the title or interest of your choice, or go straight to Safari Books Online by typing torontopubliclibrary.ca/safari. It's free with your library card.

Catalogue beta testing so far

Many thanks to everyone who has volunteered to help us out with beta testing the new version of the library catalogue.

We're happy to hear that the key improvements introduced in this version, particularly the changes to layout and functionality in customer accounts, are working better for you.

Overwhelmingly, the feedback has been positive, but a few of you have asked why we haven’t done more—specifically, making the search engine better, improving the performance of the catalogue, and delivering more robust capabilities.

The current version of the catalogue is part of a larger system for managing a range of complex library operations. While the overall system works effectively, the catalogue itself has limitations as a customer-facing website. The beta catalogue represents our efforts to address some gaps in features that you have identified. We are limited in our ability to make changes due to way the technology works, particularly in terms of search results ranking.

As a next step in improving the online experience, we are working on implementing the commercial search engine Endeca. This will be available in 2009.

Watch this blog for further updates on our progress.

Again, thank you for all your helpful feedback.

What's happening with the library catalogue?

Good news! We’re getting ready to launch a Beta version of the catalogue with a number of improvements you’ve been asking for. Among the changes:

• A cleaner design that makes it easier to find the information you’re looking for
• An easy way to bookmark or link to items that interest you
• A separate section in your account for holds that are ready for pickup
• A list of any holds you missed picking up, so that you can easily place the holds again
• An easier way to make your holds Active or Inactive

In this case, Beta means “NOT LIVE.” We would have liked to let you test the new system on your existing holds and account, but unfortunately we weren’t able to set it up that way.

The Beta site will give you a snapshot of your account as it was in early November. You’ll be able to place holds, renew items, and make other changes, but any actions you take will be for test purposes only and will not affect your live account.

Participation in the Beta test will be by invitation only (our Beta site is in a test environment that can only handle a limited number of simultaneous users). If you’d like to help us with Beta testing, send your email address to webteam@torontopubliclibrary.ca. We’ll be sending out more information, including the Beta test URL, later this week.

Thanks for your continued feedback.

Welcome to the web team blog.

Welcome to the Web Team's first blog post. In this blog we'll talk with you about what the Toronto Public Library is doing and planning online. This includes our library catalogue, websites, and all our online and interactive services. We know that by talking with you we'll learn more about what you want and expect and we're excited to engage with you in this important conversation.

This blog will have contributors from all facets of our web team and will cover many topics including design, usability, accessibility, technology and the Internet at large. We want to be open and accountable to you, our customers. It’s OK to criticize the library’s website in your comments and ask challenging questions. We also welcome suggestions for topics you think this blog should cover.

Comments provided will be read before a decision is made about whether or not to publish them. We want to include as many comments as possible, but we won't publish comments that are abusive, offensive, or way off-topic.

It's worth noting that leaving a comment on this blog does not replace or represent the Library's official customer service. To make an official request, comment or complaint, please use the online form or call Answerline at 416-393-7131.

And so with out further ado, we're now open for discussion! What do you have to say?