Library System Resolves Catalog Problems (original) (raw)

The New York Public Library has worked out most of the technical problems that marred the introduction of its new online catalog on July 6.

Heidi Singer, a spokeswoman for the library system, said in an e-mail message that “the Catalog was operating much more smoothly” by July 8, and that “all major functions were restored” by July 10.

The new catalog integrates the catalogs for the library’s research and circulating collections, making it easier to go through the library’s 14 million cataloged items. Ms. Singer said the Catalog features a “clean, simple search interface similar to an Internet search engine such as Google.”

The Catalog also offers new circulation and user account options like greater control over holds, allowing a library patron “to save a list of books for future reserves, specify different delivery locations for individual books and other materials, and change delivery locations up to the point materials are put in transit.”

The hardware and software for the Catalog cost $7 million, supplied by city and private financing. The new system was tested over the past several months using a database of one million records.

Ms. Singer said the library hoped to add “public interfaces in Spanish, Chinese and Russian,” and a feature that would “allow patrons to pay fines via credit cards.”