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A minor library gripe

Originally posted by clementine123 at A minor library gripe
I finally just had to make a post of my own.  We get a lot of inquiries from patrons who want to know the address of various places.  Either they do not have the internet or they are just baffled over a webpage that doesn't seem to list a physical address.  A lot of companies just don't list their physical address online but when a public library doesn't list their address on their webpage I just have to wonder at what they are smoking.  I just had an inquiry from a patron for a list of library addresses in a certain part of our state and only one had their address on their webpage.  Argh!

If you could all just take a quick peek at your library's home page and see if an average patron can quickly find your address, I would appreciate it.  A lot of the pages have a 'contact us' link that only hooks up to an e-mail address.  There are some patrons would would prefer to call or drop by.

Rant is now over (I hope).

Comments

( 13 comments — Leave a comment )
sarcasticah
Apr. 20th, 2014 12:50 am (UTC)
Ours is at the very bottom of the main page, but if you click the nice big About Us link at the top of the page, it takes you to a page with our address, a mailto link to email us, our phone number, and hours.
calzephyr77
Apr. 20th, 2014 02:20 am (UTC)
I hear you, and great suggestion. At my last job I did a lot of research on different companies and a lot of the time there was no contact info at all. I had no idea where their HQ was, etc. Even more confusing, I didn't even know what some of the companies did! It was all "We create new paradigms on a daily basis to ensure innovation and improve the future". Yes...yes...but what does Megacorp actually do!?!
libwitch
Apr. 20th, 2014 02:26 am (UTC)
providing that sort of information is webdesign 101 and it drives me crazy when its not easily located (or at least in the case of stores,make it clear if you are a web only store and do not have a physical location).

As for badly designed library sites - which happens because hey, i know in my region we do have libraries that are pretty one person set ups (and have one staff computer and one public pc so web sites are not a top priority), I am thankful for both our regional library council, library system AND NYSED for maintaining pretty complete library directories online. Even it the patrons don't always know to look there, I do.
rurounitriv
Apr. 20th, 2014 03:57 am (UTC)
I've also gotten frustrated by these companies that don't bother listing their physical location or even a PO box where snail mail can be sent. It's very annoying when I've got patrons that just want to be able to send a letter to request an item that the company sells or something, and they can't do business with them at all!

it's hard to miss our library's address on our website - it's front and center at the top of our homepage!
globalkat
Apr. 20th, 2014 06:52 am (UTC)
One academic library I worked for shared a loading dock with several other buildings, so the mailing address for the library was nowhere near its actual location. Even better - the street address assigned to the building was the mailing address, so you couldn't give out the street address when giving directions or people would wind up at the loading dock. Trying to explain that to people - particularly to those who just HAD to have a street address - was always fun.
timepiece
Apr. 20th, 2014 12:51 pm (UTC)
Our address, phone # and hours are in a drop-down box when you click "info" in our top menu, and also in a sidebar further down the page.

It is amazing how often that stuff is missing. The worst offender for me is news sites - I follow a link from search results to a local newspaper/tv news story, and I can't tell where they are! You'd think it would be on the "masthead", but they seem to assume only locals visit and they don't need to put the state.
kageygirl
Apr. 22nd, 2014 02:47 pm (UTC)
Oh, I hate that. The Daily Times of *where*, exactly?
timepiece
Apr. 22nd, 2014 03:03 pm (UTC)
I know, right? I hate to tell them, but "tri-state area" can apply to a lot of places when you're not starting with a specific state.

I'm happy to say my local paper has the state in the masthead. And some might have enough clues for some people (just searched your example - "daily times" - which is at DelmarvaNow.com. Now, people in the mid-Atlantic will know where that (Delmarva) is, but I'm not sure anyone on the West Coast or even New England would be familiar with it. Though at least the footer has links to news for each individual state covered). Here's a good one - thetimesnews.com. At least the weather map tells you where they are, cause there is no other indication.

Sorry, pet peeve.

Edited at 2014-04-22 03:04 pm (UTC)
jayellemo
Apr. 21st, 2014 12:46 pm (UTC)
We do have the addresses of all our libraries listed, but it is not under the "contact us" link. It takes four clicks to find it.
My library system has the worst webpage - we get so many complaints about it, but we have *two* IT guys for the entire system. They are swamped, and no one else is allowed to touch the website but them (due to union rules). It makes me want to pull my hair out on a regular basis.
And making me even more frustrated are the number of co-workers (of a certain...age) who think that it doesn't matter if we have a good webpage because "they can just call us".


Edited at 2014-04-21 12:47 pm (UTC)
mlle_cara
Apr. 21st, 2014 07:33 pm (UTC)
My work address is easy to find and my hometown library address is sort of easy to find. It's right under the name of the library at the top of the home page, but in much smaller print. Then, it's listed on the contact page, but as a sentence ("The library is located at 123 xyz street, hometown") instead of as an address block. So, I can easily imagine people missing it.
full_metal_ox
Apr. 21st, 2014 10:25 pm (UTC)
The homepage of the library I most often frequent has "Locations" among the menu options at the top right of the page; clicking will produce a Google map of the region, with every branch pinpointed and numbered; below is a list of the phone numbers and street addresses of all branches.
tesslibtech
Apr. 22nd, 2014 03:58 am (UTC)
Ours is on the right hand side of the page - very easy to find. We're going to launch a new website soon - am interested to see if the contact info is as prominent!

T
_blah_blah_blah
Apr. 22nd, 2014 07:23 pm (UTC)
mine...address on the bottom "masthead":
http://www.peabodylibrary.org/
clicking "about us" & "directions" brings up:
http://www.peabodylibrary.org/about/directions.html

( 13 comments — Leave a comment )

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