Seattle Public Library

Seattle Public Library has a fantastic online presence. Their homepage has lots of information, covering a wide range of services. The information is well-organized, with different items divided into boxes. Below the page title is a menu bar of the major types of online resources.

Clicking on the Library Collection tab brings the user to the main search page. There is one simple box for users to input keywords, although the page also includes other standard choices, such as an advanced search link. There is also a sidebar with several reference links (dictionary, research topics, newspaper databases, etc.)

Major media are simple to look up. Entering a title, author, or subject into the keyword box elicits a (usually) good hit list. Each listing includes the basic info, (title, author, publisher, copyright,) available locations, call number, cover, and type of media (including info such as large print.) Many of the listings also include book (or media) covers. On this hit list page, the user can sort by title, author, publication date, and also - interestingly - arrival date.

The user can also limit her searching by media type. Advanced searching is available and easy. These searches can limit results to works of particular languages, individual branches, or even other library systems, specifically the University of Washington or King County Library System.

From the search results page, clicking on a particular work gets you access to reviews, summaries, and first chapter previews in many cases. Also, this page includes links to title, author, and all pertinent subjects, so you can very easily look up other works by the same author or other books of the same subject. Tres cool.

It's easy to see when the item will be available, as well as how many people have the item on hold. It's also easy to put the item on hold, or if you have a Seattle PL card, you can put the item in "Your List," which is the equivalent of Amazon's "Wish List." The books placed in your list are held there indefinitely, unless the user chooses to delete them. This made me wonder if this sort of information is something that could be requested by the FBI. The SPL privacy policy didn't mention the wish list either way, so I contacted the library via chat. The chat module was easy to use, and after a brief delay, I got to "talk" to Connie, a librarian with the "Questionpoint 24/7" service, which I guess does the chatting when there are no SPL librarians around. She didn't know the answer to my question, but forwarded it to the local librarians, and said I should receive an email with an answer. (I'll keep you posted.)

In addition to the standard catalog of dvds, cds and books, there are several databases and e-book databases available to users. There are three types of databases available: accessible in the physical library only, remotely accessible with a SPL card, and remotely accessible to all for free. However, at present the database list does not appear to include any free databases.

OTHER STUFF

There is a Readers' Corner page, which includes staff reading lists, as well as new and popular lists.

Suggestion form for purchases.

RSS feeds for availability/due date reminders of individual books.

Simple, straightforward ILL system.

And last but certainly not least, they have several podcasts, with interviews of and readings by several authors.

ALSO
The page appears to be compliant with ADA requirements, and there are links to assist people w/ disabilities.

Overall, a pretty darn good OPAC. The best I've seen in my limited experience.

UPDATE 1/31/08: I got a response on their "My List," the service where users can keep a list of material they're interested in. Interesting response:

The Library Board of Trustees has adopted a very strict policy regarding the confidentiality of users of the library. Any record of your use of the library, including the titles of materials you have saved on My List, would not be revealed to anyone (including the FBI) without a court order. Here is a link to that policy on the library web site:

http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=about_policies_confidentiality

In addition, as explained in the My List help file, a My List list is deleted after one year if it has not been used. Each time you use a My List list, the list is saved for twelve months after that use and is then deleted

(Italics mine.) So it appears that this is a concern for users, as many library systems delete all records of your browsing/checkout history as soon as you log off/turn in your books.