There is no compensation for beta-testing my patience

I became a fan of the New York Public Library on Facebook just before it launched its new catalog system this week. I don't have a strong feeling about the new system either way; it took me a minute to find out how to tell if a hold has come in, but it seems to work about as well while being slightly better organized.

Thanks to Facebook, I know I am the only one who feels this way! After the NYPL acknowledged in a status message that users were "experiencing difficulties" with the new catalog it got twice as many comments as the next item, a link to an article on Michael Jackson. Check out these real comments from two separate posted items about the new catalog:

• "The NYPL should have adhered to the old adage, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' The new system is terrible even without the glitches." (?)
  
• "I was not surprised..."
  
• "This new system is a bit stressful for the employees as well. :-("
  
• "today is NOT the day to do something with the library if you don't need to..." (??)
• "I can't believe how badly this new catalogue has broken the system! Sure doesn't make me a happy camper specially since the old one worked just fine!!!"
  
• "Personally I'd rather see the site go down for a few more days until all this is worked out." (Now that is just crazy talk.)
  

One epic complainant left both of these notes.

• "Logging in? The least of the problems. Try six items that were renewed on line on Sunday and when I stopped by the library on Monday I found that they had been un-renewed. I tried four times to renew them, but the system didn't want to do that. Try that the librarian had to go on-line and renew five of the six. Try the fact that the sixth item couldn't be renewed because it was suddenly missing? And you can upgrade all you want, but I get paid to be a beta tester of some second rate glitchy system that feels as if it was designed by some programmer who couldn't find his -ss in the dark with a candle and both hands. Try finding out if it works before opening it up to the public. Well, unless you were figuring that the fines that would result from the system might be good cash flow, right?"


• "The developers might need time, but OUR TIME? How about I get to send them out to the get my lunch? Pick up my drycleaning? Do my job without pay? Run that DVD over to the library so that although somehow the new system was reporting it as missing (oh, right, missing and somehow still charged to my account), I had it. Oh, right, that's peonage. Not going to happen. As I said, I get paid to be beta testing. And that's what we are doing, being uncompensated beta-testers. How was that acceptable? It seems to me that this thing didn't work right out of the gate. And someone else needed to find that out."

One could argue that judging by this feedback, the public library should never have gotten on Facebook in the first place and allowed people to air their dirty laundry. But those 7,600-plus fans aren't trying to take the library down -- they're just speaking their minds! Hilariously, passionately, and with no self-awareness.

Their comments were much more illuminating than the subsequent inevitable Times article, which I'm not linking to because it contained no reporting besides "Oh look, there was a long line at the Mid-Manhattan library." By chance I also hit the Mid-Manhattan in person last week, something I rarely do unless I'm in the neighborhood or in a hurry. My impressions: Most of what I was looking for wasn't on the shelf, the after-work line was substantial and the security guard spent a long time contemplating my checkout slip. But I expected all these things! How luxurious then to go back to requesting books from my desk with a dirty coffee cup at my elbow. There are bound to be bumps, but the library is moving forward, and I am a fan of that.