Urggg! A patron review of the III patron authentication screen...

["Jonathan Jiras" <jjjwml@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Innopacers:

Here's an email I thought I would share with all of you that we received
from an Information Technology professor informing us that he has placed
our catalog's hold/renew books feature in his "hall of shame".  Some of
what he says here is just misinformed, but what is really annoying about
all this is that it shows that people assume the patron
authentication/request features we designed and programmed and are
things over which we have total control.

It's so frustrating!

Jon Jiras
Library Software Specialist
Wallace Library
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, NY 14623
585-475-7737
jjjwml@xxxxxxxxxx

[snip]
I'm teaching Human Factors this semester in IT, so I'm very attuned to
web design issues right now.  But these would get my attention in any
case.  I hope you find these suggestions helpful.
 
1)  The request/hold system has all the information it needs to email
users when a requested book comes in.  Daily checks are a great job for
a system and a crummy job for a machine.
 
The system requires users to login again (and again) for each inquiry
even within a session.  Furthermore the login is more complicated than
most (name, AND ID, and password) even though little if any extra
security is gained by asking for last name.
 
I actually wrote this up for a classroom "Hall of Shame" entry, so I
share it with you here.
 
Wally is a powerful system and I appreciate it.  These things are hard.
If you'd be interested in having my students perform a general
evaluation and make reccomendations, I'd be happy to discuss this.
 
Best wishes,
[snip] (name withheld)