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Introducing the Wishlist!

by eli

You've asked for it, and waited patiently, and now it's here! Our most-requested patron feature, a Wishlist that you can use to keep track of items you're interested in but not yet ready to request, is now a part of the AADL catalog. Here's what you need to know:

* A Wishlist is created for you the first time you add an item to your Wishlist in the catalog
* You can add any item to your Wishlist, where it will stay until you request or delete it
* You can see what items on your Wishlist are currently available
* You can also make other lists with whatever name you'd like
* Lists, including the Wishlist, are private unless you check the box to make them public
* Requesting is also much simpler requiring fewer clicks and allowing you to stay on your list of items

In short, if you want something but not right now, just add it to your Wishlist instead of requesting it and you can see it under My Lists on your my account page. There's lots of potential for this new feature, and there may be some glitches here or there, but just let us know if you see anything strange or have any questions, concerns, or suggestions about Lists, either by commenting on this post or by contacting us. Thanks very much for your patience as we've worked on this, enjoy it, and thanks for using the Library!

Comments

Submitted by smontgom on Tue, 10/12/2010 - 6:29pm

Just tried it, I like it... :) First I wasn't sure where the lists show up, because I expected to see it in the main page for "my account" since the holds are there, then I realized that it's one of the choices in the menu on the left. Thanks!

Thanks for the comments all! pcaadl, you can add items to your list as you're searching the catalog. Each item in your list of results has a button to add it to your Wishlist, or to another named list of your creation; you can also do this from the full record page for each item. Let us know if you're still having trouble and thanks for using the Library!

Submitted by jasmine.tee.k on Tue, 10/12/2010 - 7:52pm

I love that the library has added this feature! No more miscellaneous scraps of paper with titles written on them and then not remembering why! I had started taking pictures of book covers with my cell phone camera to try to keep track of possible future reads but even that became cumbersome. Thanks so much!

Submitted by jgs on Tue, 10/12/2010 - 10:07pm

Seems like as good a time as any to remind folks that a few years ago our friends at the FBI were engaging in the questionable practice of demanding (legally compelling? or just intimidating? I don't recall) libraries to disclose their borrowing records. As I recall, many libraries (including AADL) allowed patrons to opt out of having borrowing records retained. Presumably the wishlist is subject to similar concerns, if that's your thing.

Make no mistake, I appreciate and plan to use the wishlist and this won't keep me up nights.

Thanks very much for your comment, jgs. Actually, AADL will only store your past checkouts for you if you opt in by checking the "Record Checkouts" box on your preferences under My Account > Edit > Preferences. Just like your Wishlist or other lists you may make, you can delete items from your Checkout history or delete the whole thing at any time, and once it's gone, it's gone; we have no way to recover it. To be clear, if the FBI or law enforcement officials have a court order requesting records from AADL, we will provide what we have. But what we have is up to you. More information about this can be found in our [:aboutus/policies/privacy|privacy policy], and as always just let us know if you have any questions.

Submitted by Suzanne Braverman on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 9:47am

Any way to put a title not yet in your system (e.g., The Finkler Question, which just won The Booker Prize) on my Wishlist? That's what I need this Wishlist feature for the most - the books I read reviews about that I want to read that are not yet in your system.

Suzanne, not yet, but we built the Wishlist in such a way as to support that as a later feature, and we've got our eyes on ways to make it easier to know when an item you've suggested has been ordered, so stay tuned for that! Thanks for your feedback.

Submitted by markjwilson on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 2:55pm

I love it, I love it, I love it! I have (cringe) 29 books checked out right now, and 11 on request. That's primarily because I don't trust myself to maintain my own Wishlist. Instead, I check books out and they sit on my shelf, getting renewed as required, until I get to them. Going forward, I will *definitely* use the Wishlist instead. BTW, I do know that it's piggy to keep items checked out for this purpose, and I do feel a little guilty about it. I will happily let go of this guilt and use the Wishlist instead. I love the new Catalog Search results screen in general too. Well done and thank you.

Thanks, Mark, we're very glad you like the feature. And trust us, there is *nothing* cringeworthy about 29 checkouts. Thanks for your feedback, and thanks for using the library! And dgrogan, thanks for mentioning that unclosed parens, we'll get that fixed.

Submitted by dgrogan on Mon, 10/18/2010 - 2:30pm

This is a really small problem, but if you want to look professional, I suppose you should fix it. When you create a new list, under the first field, where it asks you to name your list, there are examples of what you could name your list. These examples have a parenthesis at one end, but none on the other end, so it looks like this: (rjhga;gha;hg;hgahglkh ...I suppose it would be easy to fix, and it would make the website look better and professional, but it's not a huge problem...

Submitted by vanna on Fri, 10/22/2010 - 8:37am

Hello. Thank you for adding this Wishlist feature, which makes life so much sweeter for avid library patrons! One thing that I'd recommend is that when we select "add to wishlist" tab, a new window pops up confirming the addition and prompting us to click on one of the two buttons. To make this interface much more seamless, ergonomic and user-friendly with less clicks, from a human-factors perspective, may I suggest that when we select the "add to wishlist" tab, it automatically changes to "added to your wishlist" on the same (catalog) page instead of opening another popup and increasing the user's workload. I believe it would be a simple coding change but one that would be welcomed tremendously and make the interface usage much more seamless and productive. Thank you!

Hello, Cheerala, thanks for your comment! We have something like this in mind for a future update. It's not quite as straightforward as it seems, but it should be possible with a little more development. Thanks for your feedback, and thanks for using the library!

Submitted by ColeenT on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 8:24pm

Cool!

Submitted by ashflowtuff on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 10:41am

Great feature. I also use Shelfari to keep track of books I want to read, but this is more convenient so I can go straight from my wishlist to requesting the item.

Submitted by kittenkat101 on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 10:58am

I love lists. A wishlist is a great way to keep track of what you want to read. I only just found out about it though. Wonder why...

Submitted by lovetoread23 on Fri, 07/15/2011 - 2:09pm

Another cool addition to the AADL website. Thanks for making it even easier to find and read great books!

Submitted by KathyD on Wed, 08/03/2011 - 8:14pm

I'm enjoying using the wishlist to keep track of new authors I like and the titles I haven't gotten too yet. Thanks to the summer game for prompting me to explore and use this feature.

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