[Web4lib] Problems with Emerald Insight

[Sutherland, Paul]

Redirection (or lack of it) is one of those personal losing battles I
have been fighting for quite a few years.

I usually share my concerns with Government bodies, Academic orgs and
Libraries in New Zealand my concerns about the lack or error handling
and redirection when they change their site - thinking they should know
better...

The responses always do range from a so what! to oh! good point - hadn't
thought of that.

My response ranges from sigh to oh my!

I usually share the following two references

* Cool URIs don't change http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI.html
* Fighting Linkrot http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980614.html

Does anyone have any other useful cites on this topic.

/paul

> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org 
> [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Roy Tennant
> Sent: Saturday, 27 August 2005 7:32 a.m.
> To: Web4Lib
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Problems with Emerald Insight
> 
> I'm reminded by the ALA web site fiasco a while back. I don't know  
> why organizations think releasing a web site before it is properly  
> tested could ever possibly be a good thing. Hang the 
> schedule. If you  
> put it out there before it's time it will come back to haunt you.  
> Library Journal was another web site release fiasco. Hey 
> people, talk  
> to your customers every now and then _before_ foisting a new site on  
> us. We would be wise to remember this the next time we get caught up  
> in thinking our new web site is the best thing since sliced bread.  
> Will the users of our new web site feel the same way?
> Roy
> 
> On Aug 26, 2005, at 9:26 AM, Leo Robert Klein wrote:
> 
> > So I'm trying to do my CurrentCites (which BTW is a wonderful  
> > Current Awareness Service edited by the renowned R. Tennant) and I  
> > see from my various "Emerald Alert Service Updates" a whole bunch  
> > of interesting articles in journals like "New Library World",  
> > "Library Management" and "Aslib Proceedings".
> >
> > I scoot over to www.emeraldinsight.com to look them up and  
> > basically the online TOC's are screwed up, none of the articles  
> > show up, and the links don't work.  This has been the case for  
> > several days now.  Bad news, you'd think -- especially from an  
> > outfit whose bread and butter is to provide online content.
> >
> > But if that were the end of it, this wouldn't be worth mentioning.  
> > Here's the frosting on the cake:  I naturally brought this to the  
> > attention of alerts at emeraldinsight.com and here's the response I  
> > got back:
> >
> > "We are aware of some technical problems on our new site. I would  
> > advise going to old.emeraldinsight.com and browsing for these  
> > articles on there. I have checked and this site is up to date."
> >
> > "I apologise for any problems you have encountered and we hope to  
> > have them resolved asap."
> >
> > While that's nice, you'd think they would have put some 
> advisory on  
> > the pages themselves instead of leaving it up to some poor 
> devil to  
> > use the system, not find it working properly, to report that and  
> > then to finally be told the material lay elsewhere.
> >
> > Back in the good old days of the Soviet Union, the standard  
> > practice in the face of unexpected difficulties, set-backs and  
> > disasters was to keep a lid on them -- and if anyone found out, to  
> > assure people that everything was under control.  Whatever you  
> > think of that regime, this is certainly not a model for effective  
> > delivery of online services.
> >
> > Far better to admit your screw-ups and make sure your users know  
> > about them every which way you can.  Web development after 
> all is a  
> > constant school of humility -- you might as well embrace that fact  
> > if you want to  be successful in it.
> >
> > LEO
> >
> > -- -------------
> > Leo Robert Klein
> > www.leoklein.com
> > _______________________________________________
> > Web4lib mailing list
> > Web4lib at webjunction.org
> > http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
> >
> >
> 
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> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
> 


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