BiblioCommons will get you your pie

Can you imagine how frustrating it would be if you went out to eat and ordered apple pie, and the server brought you Waldorf salad? You’d say, “I asked for pie,” and he’d say, “Well, this has apples in it. I thought the apples were the important part.”

This is kind of what it is like to search with our current online catalog (and the majority of other libraries’ online catalogs). But with BiblioCommons, we get to have a catalog that uses search algorithms that make sense! Huzzah! Ask for apple pie and you get apple pie!

Comparing keyword searches performed by both catalogs was most revealing. I used the suggested search term of “24,” expecting to get the DVD of episodes from the TV show of the same name. BiblioCommons returned the record for the expected DVD as number three on my list of search results (after 2 popular YA graphic novels, both entitled “24”). Our “old/current” Sirsi-based catalog placed at the top of the search results list a novel entitled Blue Moon and the easy fiction title Curious George at the Parade. Wha???? I scrolled through the first 100 search results (after that, my eyes got buggy), and the DVD of 24 was nowhere to be found.

Simple pleasures (things I like):

• Not having to click “new search” when I want to look for a different item – I LOVE that the search box is always at the top of whatever page I am viewing.


• I appreciate the “did you mean . . .?” feature when I’ve misspelled search words. So much better than showing me a list of those Library of Congress subject headings that start with the same letters as whatever I typed. Not helpful.


• Saving items for later. This is like shopping! Only without the guilt! And I love having all those titles I want to read when I’m done with school and my kids are a little older and I have more free time (and this is going to be . . . when?) saved in one place.

So far I have little to criticize. A couple of thoughts:

• Having everything I rate or review added to a “my collection” list that everyone can then see makes me a little nervous. And yes, after searching the help documents I realize I can click “Add Details” and mark each item as private. However, this is sort of tedious to do every time I comment on an item, and time consuming because I have to do it for each item separately. I also have to remember to take this extra step! Is there any way to make all items in my collection private by default?
  

• In the record for each item, instead of a field identifier like “author/creator” it says “Statement of Responsibility,” which is very much a cataloger’s term and probably doesn’t mean much to regular folks.

Overall the new catalog rocks. DBRL rocks! I can’t believe I’m crushing on a library catalog. But I am. Just a little. Because it brings me pie when I ask for it.