k1lk1

k1lk1 t1_ivjecs2 wrote

Reply to comment by King-of-New-York in Brooklyn’s library moves to slip books through red state bans by King-of-New-York

Is it though? Shouldn't local institutions serve local people? Have all of the access and equity issues in Brooklyn really been solved already? Florida and Oklahoma have nothing to do with Brooklynites access to information.

Again, this is just political warriors capturing every entity they can and using it to pursue ideological ends.

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k1lk1 t1_ivja8m3 wrote

Reply to Brooklyn’s library moves to slip books through red state bans by King-of-New-York

I remember when libraries served their patrons and didn't try to make political statements halfway across the country.

Just more people who make everything about politics, capturing our institutions to use them to fight their political battles. Many NGOs and charities are captured in this way (e.g. wikimedia foundation).

Brooklyn library should be making headlines for its great service for Brooklynites.

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k1lk1 t1_iuig65f wrote

Reply to comment by oreoresti in "The Queens Public Library has launched an online archive of information on over 1,300 people whom schools, streets, buildings, parks, monuments and other public spaces across the borough have been named after." by yourbasicgeek

I guarantee you all that fancy shit cost them MORE money than if they just defined something simple in the contract.

They were trying to be relevant, and it looks like trash, and actively impedes people looking for information.

Yes, I am a software engineer. They don't just let randos work on their web design. If they did, I would be more than willing to cull all of the junk.

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k1lk1 t1_iuhtgqu wrote

Reply to comment by elizabeth-cooper in "The Queens Public Library has launched an online archive of information on over 1,300 people whom schools, streets, buildings, parks, monuments and other public spaces across the borough have been named after." by yourbasicgeek

Better information density and more relevant search. Less fancy UI gadgets. Same kind of stuff as old reddit vs. new reddit. I would say it's only slightly better than BPL, but I do find it better.

But I wouldn't hold it up as a great example of a web portal either. I haven't found a library site I'd call good. I don't know why libraries in particular try to be so fancy.

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k1lk1 t1_iufzwmm wrote

Reply to "The Queens Public Library has launched an online archive of information on over 1,300 people whom schools, streets, buildings, parks, monuments and other public spaces across the borough have been named after." by yourbasicgeek

Great, now tell them to fix their website.

  • wasted whitespace and trendy UI gadgets lead to low information density, the last thing you want in a library search page

  • autocorrect in search bar is terrible, routinely fails to identify valid Authors names and even uncommon English words. "Kissinger" -> "did you mean 'kissing'". Even when their auto suggest considers it valid, they've still left on the red spellcheck squiggles in the browser itself, which flag less usual words and names.

  • searching by media type usually returns irrelevant results including other media kinds, e.g. searching for an ebook and also getting audio books

  • search is bloody awful in general. E.g. one of the results for searching "ink black heart" (Rowling's new book) is a CD recording of Les Miserables. Or if you mistype a word in search (e.g. "3 body problem" instead of "three body problem") you get totally irrelevant results.

I could go on and on, I routinely use the online portal for four different libraries, and Queens is by far the worst of them.

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k1lk1 t1_itw9ifa wrote

Reply to comment by dq9 in More Than 104,000 New York City Students Were Homeless Last Year by Lilyo

Non-capitalist societies leave people way worse off. Such paradises don't exist. They are a figment of the imagination of naive children.

Even the much vaunted European social democracies are underpinned by robust capitalist economies. Skimming off the top of a capitalist economy, to provide for social welfare, is the smart way to do things.

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