[WEB4LIB] ?making it easy for patrons to report typos in databases

[Walt_Crawford at notes.rlg.org]

Phalbe,

If your search systems allow it, a "Feedback" link can be useful not only
to report typos but also other problems, notes, even praise.

I'm coming from the "vendor side" in this case, but with years of
personal/organizational experience. We added a Feedback link to Eureka,
RLG's end-user search system, years ago; it opens up a text box for the
message, with an optional e-mail address if the sender desires a response.

For a while, most of the feedback was various comments and complaints about
the system itself. Now that we've addressed most of those complaints (which
were quite legitimate), most of the feedback consists of suggestions about
databases--notes on errors in some cases, notes from authors asking why
such-and-such an article isn't included in others. We even get praise now
and then, always astonishing in a feedback system.

Until the last few months, I responded to most feedback directly, with one
of the other Eureka designers responding if I was out of town, unless a
database-specific issue was better handled by our database managers. Now,
the RLG Information Center is the first line of response, although--since
most feedback now involves database issues--quite a few wind up with the
database managers. Now, as then, we try to reply to every message that has
a valid email address--frequently within half a day or less, which always
seems to startle users.

I will say that:
(a) the mechanism works,
(b) the level of feedback has never been onerous--for us, typically about
one a day for a system that sees around 100,000+ searches a week,
(c) we've had fewer than a dozen curse-filled messages in the better part
of a decade, but then we primarily serve colleges and universities, and
(d) easy feedback mechanisms--preferably using a text entry box, NOT a
mailto: link with its nasty invocation of MS Outlook!--make any Web site
more user friendly, as long as the feedback isn't ignored.

You can try it out (Eureka, that is--feel free to click on Feedback, but
please don't actually send feedback unless there's something you need to
report!) here:
http://www.rlg.org/eureka.html

-walt crawford, RLG, my own opinions only-


                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                    




Folks,

I've received a very interesting plea from a man who uses many library
databases. He would like for libraries to make it easy to report typos
they've discovered in their online databases. He even suggests that the
"hit" page have a link that could be clicked on for this purpose.

Does anyone make a point of making it easy for patrons to do this kind of
reporting? If so, would you please post your URL so I can see what you've
done?

Thanks.

Phalbe Henriksen
Director
Bradford County Public Library
Starke, FL