End of February Changes to the Website

Exciting changes have been happening with the website!

When you click on Staff Picks in any of the Browse boxes you will now see the page has changed from an alphabetical list by staff pick name to a list of popular genres, age ranges and formats. Thanks go to the Communications Department for the wonderful graphics and to the Alyson and Jill for putting the page together. When you click on an icon you see a presentation of handpicked titles. The Staff Picks page still does have staff names presented, if the staff person has provided a review within the last 60 days.

Look for a new search in Movies – Family Friendly. This list presents G and PG rated movies and was added based on demand.

We hope you enjoy these changes!

February Changes

On the homepage you will see the large story box is or will be by February 22 changed over to a graphics box. The graphics will move in slideshow fashion. Clicking on the graphic will take the user to more content. The smaller box on the home page is now graphics based and clicking on this will take the user to more content, also.

Many of the links have been changed on the Browse pages in Books, Movies, Music, Russian and Spanish. Most of these links are now canned searches instead of feeds from III. We had multiple reasons for making these changes. In the Books, Movies and Music pages we evaluated the use of each link and removed links which were not being well-used. Our other consideration was removing feeds from III where possible in order to improve the performance of the III server.

In the footer under Community, a new link has been added, Patron Survey Results. Here users can find results of the DVD Vending Survey. Other survey results will be populated in this area.

January Changes

Updates made during January to the website include:

1. The navigation formerly entitled Research & Business is now renamed Research & Databases to reflect the database content and navigation found on this page.

2. The OnDemand page has experienced back-end changes. The result is the top carousel contains imags with links to services such as the downloadables. Anytime you see a database in the carousel, it is going to direct you to the list of databases page rather than to the "Connect Now" link. This is due to the library card authentication which is a requirement with most of our electronic products.

Enhancements for January 2011

It has been awhile since the last blog post - happy new year, readers!

To let you know a few minor tweaks which have taken place on the website:

1. The navigation formerly entitled Research & Business is now renamed Research & Databases. This title more accurately reflects the content contained within the page.

2. The OnDemand page has experienced back-end changes. The result is the top carousel contains images with links to services such as the downloadables. Anytime you see a database in the carousel, it is going to direct you to the list of databases. Find the database you are interested in and "connect now" from here. Because most of our vendors require a library card for entry into the product, the "connect now" has to happen at this point of entry.

As always, feel free to leave comments or ask questions here. And in celebration of 2011, the Year of the Rabbit, today's image gives you a bunny image!

Chug, chug, chug

No not the drinking kind of chug but the train kind of chug....as in rolling along! We have stabilized our processes for importing records. For you, it means that you are seeing more complete information when you conduct a search.

What kinds of information you ask? Well, the title's annotation is the main piece where we want to present this sooner than later (if the annotation is not there, you see a standard line which says "this item has limited information but you can still place a hold on it").

We hope this helps; please let us know if there is more information you would like to see when you conduct searches!

Feeling the change?

Amidst the gorgeous fall leaves, the weather is turning. I had to dig for my raincoat this morning and the radio reports snow falling in Loveland. Being a native Coloradoan, I should be used to this by now but I never seem to be prepared for the change to colder weather!

Speaking of changes, a couple of updates to report on the blog.

1. This blog will no longer be posting every week. Changes have not been occurring regularly enough to warrant a blog posting about updates. I will post at least monthly to be able to report any changes made.

2. As of this writing, there are some issues if you are searching for materials. We apologize for the inconvenience this may be causing you and hope to have it resolved yet today. For any searches and holds of materials, feel free to use the Classic Catalog tab.

Happy winter to those who are watching the snowflakes fly!

Voiced your opinion yet?

Have you got a few minutes to spare? Then we are interested in hearing from you - about your experiences and interactions with your library branch. Follow the How Are We Doing link in the Help Footer to the survey. We hope to hear from you as often as you would like to provide input!