MCPL Websites
July 31, 2010
Welcome to our new website! Unbelievably, it was nearly 15 years ago that I offered the same greeting to people when they visited our first website. Mid-Continent Public Library was the first public library in the area with an Internet presence and with its own website. For the most part, our first site was little more than a listing of our branches with contact information and directions.
Things have changed in the past 15 years. Internet users are a much larger part of the population. Internet users expect to surf on cell phones and other portable devices. Internet users expect to be able to search for information and find results. Internet users want to be able to customize and to localize their experience. Internet users expect a visually appealing experience. Most of these expectations were not even dreams 15 years ago.
I think our new website is very dynamic and has the ability to grow and to change with the demands and expectations for the average user. In fact, our new website is so dynamic and inclusive that we hope you will think of it as an online library branch! I hope that you enjoy the new site. We are committed to making your online experience a great one.
Steven V. Potter
Director of Libraries
Comments
JorabrareePic
KOVAL ! why do you only respond to people who threaten to unsubscribe... what about me....Id like a shout out too ....I watched all your videos....TWICE.....i loved you when you weren't? famous.... *sigh*
bydrilderfarl
Hello I enjoyed yoiur article. I think you have some good ideas and everytime i learn something new i dont think it will ever stop always new info , Thanks for all of your hard work!.
the new website
I HATE the new website you have to click this than that its not worth the time it takes to manuever through the site. Yes its pretty but who cared if you cannot find what you want.
Nice website
Happy to see the new website. I hope people will be patient until the bugs are worked out. Perfection is on the way, I'm sure. It's good to see our library moving ahead into the future.
THANK YOU!
Great job! The new site is good looking and easy to use. Much easier than the old site. Thanks!
Really?
I think anytime you have something new it takes people awhile to get used to it. And anytime you do anything computer related that's new, it should be expected that there will be problems at first....it takes awhile to work out all the kinks! I don't understand why some people don't get that. It's sad that some people are so rude when they get frustrated with something they don't understand. :(
Going back and forth between Mymcpl.org and the catalog
I log onto Mymcpl.org and find lots of books I am interested in. I click on the link for the book and get redirected to the catalog, where I must type my card number and PIN each time. Then, when I hit GO BACK, I can't get back to Mymcpl.org, so I have to log in there again. Is there a way to move seamlessly between the 2 sites and not have to keep typing in user names and passwords?
Answer is yes and no...
This is something that should be improved in the future when our catalog vendor releases the next version of our catalog. In the meantime, I hope this helps:
Logging into the MyMCPL.org account is completely optional, and you don't have to be logged in to see the Books, Movies, Music page. The only book personalization you get on this page by being logged in is in the Book Lists area, which leads to newsletters and not the catalog. So for now, I would skip the MyMCPL login and just use the catalog login to place holds. After you enter your card info and place a hold, use the Books, Movies, Music link on the right side of the catalog page to get back to this page.
Another option is to have two windows open, one with the website and one with the catalog. If you login on the main catalog page at: http://www.mymcpl.org/catalog for your catalog session, you will only need to login once. With two windows open, you can copy and paste titles and/or authors from the Books, Movies, Music page into the catalog page and place holds without having to login multiple times.
Neither one of these is a "great" solution, I know, but hopefully these options will save you a few of those logins. It will be much improved when our catalog vendor is able to help us merge the two logins. We apologize for the inconvenience in the meantime!
Amy Caviness
Electronic Resources Manager
MCPL
Just our luck!
I wanted to share something with the visitors to our new website. I'm not sure how to relay this, so I'll start here.
We received several comments on Monday and Tuesday about problems with site slowness on with the new site. Since our site had just come up, we suspected that we might have a problem. When I got home, I noticed the same issue that people were reporting. After some searching, we determined that there was a problem in the AT&T network that was effecting a lot of their broadband customers.I think this issue has been resolved.
Just our luck!
Anyway, thanks for the comments.
Wow
I wish I could use the same login's for both sites, however, I understand the security & privacy issues. It's just one more thing to remember. The website looks great, but I am still trying to understand all of it. I wish some things were more non-techie friendly.
website
You have managed to take a very good website and have made it slower,less intuitive, less user friendly and more confusing! I assume taxpayer funds were utilized to bring this about. If you were in a for profit business it would not last long!
Thank you for the comments
Wow! Thanks for the feedback. We will continue to work to improve the site and the user experience. We know that there are some issues with the site.
One thing that we'd like to work on is a version that is less graphically intense and more friendly to cell phones, blackberry devices, and also people with dial-up internet. There is also some confusion about the two different log ins ("Sign in to MyMCPL" and "View My Account"). View my account goes to one's library borrower account, to see overdues, books on loan, and to request new books. Sign in to MyMCPL allows you to customize your web experience. For instance, if you like mysteries you can set those preferences. Then, when you visit "Books, Movies and Music" a list of new Mystery titles will be featured.
Thanks for the comments!
Steve Potter
Awful
Mr. Potter. Your new website is impossible to access. The old site worked.
Thank you!
Lovely new site - thank you so much for all your hard work!
Login
I could not access the site without creating a new login name and, even when I'm logged in, I have to enter my library card number. Why the double login? This is not an improvement even though the site looks great.
A Nice Surprise!
What a nice surprise to log on to the MCPL Web site and see the new and improved site! So far, it look wonderful and is easy to use. Great job!!
Nice work on site
I like the new site - clean look and nice navigation. I am still disappointed in the catalog debacle though. I hope you're extracting a pound of flesh from SirsiDynix for putting us all through this.
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