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What you have told us

Here you can search through numerous patron comments and the corresponding AADL replies. Search by the type of comment, in general by what the comment is regarding, or by a particular issue.

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Date Received: 2007-01-28
Type: other
Regarding: other

Patron Comment: Do you provide any tax preparation software, i.e., TaxCut or TurboTax? If so, is there a fee associated with this service? Thank you.

AADL Reply: Thanks for contacting us. We do not provide tax preparation software, but we do intend to allow access to online tax preparation software on our public computers. Turbotax online does have a free version for federal returns, and the IRS maintains a (slightly dubious) list of other online tax prep vendors that can be used for free if your Gross Adjusted Income is under $52,000. You can find that here: http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html However, one quick caveat; we discovered last week that turbotax does not work with the Internet Explorer version we have on our public stations, and we are pushing out a solution to that by the end of this week, which will allow patrons to use firefox to do their taxes. I hope I've answered your questions; please let me know if you have any others. Eli Neiburger AADL Tech Manager


Date Received: 2007-01-26
Type: compliment
Regarding: inquiry from other institution

Patron Comment: Dear collegues, First, even it's a little bit late, Happy new Year .. I'm university librarian in France (Marseilles) and I plan to write a paper about digitized card catalogs, which seem to have been designed for nostalgic librarians, or for ... Nicholson Baker, the main card-catalog-addict in the USA. You have a wonderful card catalog with this special feature: the capability to add a comments in 3 places of the card and to save this personnal card in a specialpersonnal file! Your card catlog will have a special place in my paper, because it's the only one of this customised type. Could You send me more information on the design of this feature: history (who had the idea?); kind of programme; is it frequently used by patrons?; all information will be very helpful... By the way is it possible to use different types? Thank you very much in advance Francois University Librarian Universite de laMediterranee

AADL Reply: Francois, thank you for your interest! Our personal card catalog feature was an idea I had years ago in thinking about alternate catalog interfaces, and looking for ways to regain some of the functionality and browseability that card catalogs had without the maintenance overhead. Our lead developer, John Blyberg, took this idea and ran with it, developing the Personal card catalog feature of our catalog that you see today. It's a php script that queries the XML gateway to our catalog and formats the card image on the fly, adding comments from a separate database. Because we've never really promoted this somewhat gimmicky service, it is not heavily used, but it does have a dedicated audience, with over 2700 comments being added to cards in just over a year, and 3800 cards saved by 430 different users. However, it was a good test for us, and a good proof of concept that the card catalog interface still has some life left in it. We plan to do more with the idea in the future! I hope this has been helpful information; thanks again for your interest and please let us know if you have any other questions. Eli Neiburger AADL Tech Manager


Date Received: 2007-01-26
Type: web site feedback
Regarding: inquiry from other institution

Patron Comment: Dear Webmaster, I am the webmaster at the Des Moines Public Library in Iowa. I was noticing your extensive use of blogs on your website. We would like to incorporate blogs on our website, but are unsure which software we would like to use. Did you use an off-the-shelf software package, or did you program your blog software yourself? Is it easy to use for staff members throughout your system? Thank you in advance for any comments or advice you can give. Very nice website! Thank you, Dawn Des Moines Public Library

AADL Reply: Hello, Dawn, thanks for your interest! Our website is powered by the open-source Content Management System, Drupal (http://drupal.org). We've made many modifications to it, but the blogs, comments, user tools, and such are essentially out of the box. Its biggest advantage is how easy it is for users of any level to contribute to the site; even the most basic users need only 30 minutes of training to know how to write new posts. We have added tools that make it simple to link into our catalog or include cover images; for example, users can put [a:Will Eisner] in their post, and it will automatically be turned into a link to an author search. Similar tags exist for links to titles, subjects, etc. All staff members are empowered to contribute to the blogs with the permission of their manager, and many librarians are assigned to post 2 or 3 times a week or cover certain beats, such as new materials, community events, or author obits. The content keeps flowing without anyone having to crack the whip due to the number of contributors that blog-style publishing allows. I hope I've answered your questions; please let me know if you have any others, and thanks again for your interest and kind words! Eli Neiburger AADL Tech Manager


Date Received: 2007-01-26
Type: other
Regarding: other

Patron Comment: Hi, My friend noticed Spanish-English tutoring at the Downtown Library. Could you provide me with more information about the program? Thanks! -Andrea Clyne

AADL Reply: Hi Andrea, Please check out this blog about our partnership with PALMA: http://www.aadl.org/node/3489. PALMA is not a program facilitated by the AADL, but instead a partnership where we are extending the use of our Downtown location in exchange for the opportunity to introduce PALMA's Spanish-speaking students and college-aged tutors to our collections, programs and services. There's a link to PALMA's website on the blog, but if you have any further questions about the partnership, please feel free to call me directly at 327-8327. Thank you for your interest in what's happening at the AADL! Terry Soave soavet@aadl.org (734) 327-8327


Date Received: 2007-01-25
Type: other
Regarding: inquiry from other institution

Patron Comment: Hi, we are thinking about incorporating blogs into our library website. Can you give me information about your blogs? What software are you using? How do you decide who posts? When? Who answers/addresses comments? How did you decide to add blogs? Please tell me more! Virtual Library Las Vegas Clark County Library District

AADL Reply: Hi, thanks for your interest! To answer your questions: Our entire public website is powered by the open-source Content Management System, Drupal (http://drupal.org). We've made lots of modifications to it, but the blogs, comments, tags, and user features are mostly out of the box. Anyone on staff is empowered to blog with the permission of their manager; we set up a blogging account for them and they attend a 30-minute training session with our website content coordinator. The 'when' is mostly up to the blogger, but many staff members (especially librarians) are assigned to make a certain number of posts per week (usually 2) and some have beats to cover, like author obits, local events, governmental happenings, new DVDs, kids' content. etc. Bloggers are expected to monitor their own posts for comments and respond as appropriate. We started with a teen blog in early 2004, and when we migrated our automation system in 2005, we bascially converted the entire website to blog-style publishing. It's a natural fit for libraries who want to have fresh content on their websites and not just an online brochure. We do not premoderate staff or public posts, but we do reserve the right to edit inappropriate content later, which we've had to do exactly once in over 10,000 public comments (most from teen gamers) over the past 18 months. I hope that answers your questions; please let me know if you have any others, and thanks again for your interest. Eli Neiburger AADL Tech Manager


Date Received: 2007-01-25
Type: web site feedback
Regarding: Interlibrary loan/MeLCat

Patron Comment: I use MelCat quite a lot and it use to be that when the item I was looking for wasn't in the Ann Arbor system, my search had the option "Search other libaries. Now, that link isn't there anymore and I have to open a new window and find Mel.org and long story short, it's a big hassle. Why did it change and will you ever bring it back?

AADL Reply: Thanks for contacting us. As you may have noticed, the MeLCat link that forwards your search to MeLCat has been restored. Its removal was an oversight, and thanks for bringing it to our attention. Thanks for your patience, and please let us know if you have any further questions or trouble. Eli Neiburger AADL Tech Manager


Date Received: 2007-01-24
Type: complaint
Regarding: computers

Patron Comment: Kids/minors wanting to use PC for pleasure (email and myspace) only should be accompanied by a parent. When this branch only has 14 pcs and more than half are being used by loud young teens (if that old) we older patrons who are trying to find jobs are unable to do so. PATRON RESPONSE TO LIBRARY REPLY: Thank you for you response, and for the record, when I know I must be on the computer for longer than the allotted 30minutes, I almost always DO go to the Pittsfield branch, there I must only suffer through the nagging noise of the "COOL" machine every body much touch at least five times every time they pass by. A policy stating that a 13 year old can chaperon someone under age six for the PC's at Westgate is ridiculous! None of the PC's at Westgate warrant use by anyone under six. (They do, however, have a wonderful area at the branch on Oak Valley Drive set up for those users.) When any child under 18 pays to the City of Ann Arbor what I do annually in property taxes, then I will feel differently about us having "equal" time access. Until then, I will still begrudge and be upset by teenage socialites being able to "boot" me from a computer during a job search so they can see who the new "hottie de jour" is. No reply to this is necessary, thank you.

AADL Reply: Thank you for contacting us regarding computer usage at the West branch. Our Policies require children under the age of six to be accompanied by a chaperone who is at least 13. Other than prohibit illegal activity, the library does not make judgments on how patrons use their allotted computer time. Rather, we enforce time limits to ensure equity of access for all patrons. Each computer user is guaranteed 30 minutes of computer use at a time; if no one is waiting, patrons may remain on their station until such time as they are finished or a waitlist is initiated, in which case the patron who has been on a computer the longest (but for at least 25 minutes) is given three warnings--at 5 minutes, 2 minutes, and 1 minute--to complete his/her work and relinquish the computer to the waiting patron. For your convenience, our new Pittsfield branch, located just one-and-a-half miles to the south of West branch, has more public computers--28 compared to West's 14--due to its larger size. You may find that you are able to remain on a computer longer at Pittsfield due to the greater availability. I hope this answers your questions. Thank you for taking the time to contact us.


Date Received: 2007-01-24
Type: compliment
Regarding: compliment

Patron Comment: (All locations checked) I really enjoy coming to the library. You have a great selection of books, movies, and music. Keep up the good work.

AADL Reply: This comment was submitted anonymously.


Date Received: 2007-01-24
Type: compliment
Regarding: compliment

Patron Comment: Staff are really nice! :)

AADL Reply: This comment was submitted anonymously.


Date Received: 2007-01-24
Type: complaint
Regarding: security

Patron Comment: An elderly, handicapped woman was almost knocked down in the foyer because there was a loud boisterous crowd of youths shoving each other and hurling themselves at the window. Why were they not asked to stop before someone got hurt? Please take better care about letting wild kids run down old ladies! Thanks - Neesha

AADL Reply: This patron did not provide any contact information for a response.