Suspect in 9-Year-Old's Murder Found Dead in D.C. Jail
Ballou HS Rocks the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
President Obama Pardons the White House Turkey
First Trailer for The Real World DC
Morning Roundup: Black Friday Edition
The D.C. Public Library launched a redesigned web site today, and it appears to a substantial upgrade from its previous version. Check it out for yourself at www.dclibrary.org.
A news release accompanying the launch touts new features including separate pages for each neighborhood library; a new calendar that filters events by day, location, and type of program; an online meeting-room reservation system; the ability to request a text message to alert you when library holds become available; and an updated catalog that allows users to read excepts from books, bookmark favorites, and write and read user reviews.
"The Library’s new Web site mirrors what Library users find at online bookstores,” said chief librarian Ginnie Cooper in a statement.
If you've never taken advantage of the city's public libraries, we highly recommend doing so. Beyond books, most branches also offer comic book trade paperbacks, periodicals, DVDs and CDs, plus a whole catalog of downloadable media. D.C. residents can sign up for a free library card online.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
I've been using the DC library site for a while in its previous state - it's really handy. You can reserve books on-line and have them sent to the branch closest to you. And the downloadable media is great - tons of titles in the audio books
Agreed-- DC libraries are terrible, but their website more than makes up for it. When I'm not reading or listening to material I've downloaded from the site, I have items sent directly to my library, where I simply pull them from the hold shelf and run them through self-checkout machine. I'm in and out in under 5 minutes and I don't have to interact with the library staff at all.
nice. now, if the city can just make sure to keep funding the libraries at a level that's above the "near zero" amount they're getting now.
on a side note—is the parlands-turner location in the strip mall in front of the newish giant on alabama ave?
"parklands", not "parlands"
yes--it's small so there aren't too many books, but the space is nice and new and the librarians were nice. I was there this weekend and it had a better popular DVD selection, imo, than MLK.
thanks, braver!
Is it possible to make Nader's Library Renaissance group happy? Does anyone care?
OFF TOPIC - Miss Velvet over there on the left is not wearing a bra or socks. I wish I had the email address to Gothamist up in NYC so I can share my extreme displeasure at these feminist ads. Not that I'm advocating looking at kotex on line. Granted, DCist commentors are mostly men (and I use that term very lightly, daintily even) but looking at half-naked ladies on a computer monitor is for young boys. Hmmmm. I think I just made my point.
It seems like someone at American Apparel took the DCist commentariat's obsession with feet a little too literally.
good looking site... tho someone left the drupal logo in the url bar.
i wondered what that was.
OMG OMG VELVET!
oh, and cool site, DC Public Library.
The pictures and renderings of the new branch libraries being constructed are pretty slick - nice to see some unique designs for these buildings.
great site!
http://www.craigspr.org
I live in Virginia and work in the District. Can I get a District Library card?
I live in Virginia and work in the District. Can I get a District Library card?
Yes - from their site:
Anyone who resides, works, pays property taxes or attends school in the District of Columbia is eligible for a DC Public Library borrower’s card.
Reciprocal borrowing exists for residents of Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland and Fairfax, Loudoun, Arlington and Prince William Counties and the cities of Falls Church and Alexandria in Virginia. They may obtain free library cards from the District of Columbia Public Library. Others may apply, after payment of the appropriate fee, for a nonresident library card.
Thank You!
Did anyone actually click around this site before declaring it a success? Every link to the electronic catalog is broken. The "top 5" list is malformed and links nowhere.
This site is not ready to be considered "launched," in my opinion.
Yeah, the site is not ready at all, except for the pretty pictures. I get a "The system is currently unavailable due to system maintenance. Please check back soon." message when I try to look up a book.
Where's the iphone app?
The DC public library system launched the first library catalog iphone app of any system in the country. It's very basic, but let's you search the catalog and reserve books to be sent to your local branch. It's a great tool and mind-boggling that it's not on the front page and almost impossible to find buried in the site. If memory serves, it was highlighted on the front page of the old site. Why on earth get rid of it?
http://dclibrarylabs.org/projects/iphone/
I'm a huge fan of DC Library's services, but this site puts several extra clicks between me and everything I use. It's all pretty, no functionality.
Where's the login/My Account? It's completely vanished.
Where are the books? They're hardly mentioned on the front page. "Books, Movies and Music" are all crammed together in the last tab on the homepage.
The one good thing they've done is put the catalog search on the front page. Otherwise, they've created a timewasting ad for themselves that requires lots of clicks and scrolling to get to the content.