New Overdrive coming and it is awful

[4691mls]

I agree with you about the wish list being available in cover view only - wish it were available in list view to see more details.

Did you know that if you go into account settings you can set it so you are shown any (or all) of the age categories? So if you want to be able to see all books from young adult through mature adult, you can select all of those in your settings.

[dki]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Did you know that if you go into account settings you can set it so you are shown any (or all) of the age categories? So if you want to be able to see all books from young adult through mature adult, you can select all of those in your settings.

No, I did not know that, mainly because I just cannot bring myself to linger long enough at one time to figure it all out. Frankly, I am afraid what else will jump out and bite me. So one little step at a time, LOL. However it is sure that they took all the functionality I enjoyed and replaced it with stuff that not only I have no use for, but frankly makes the library pretty much unusable.

The way I used it is not to search for a book, but rather browse what they have when I had time to do so, and put it in my wishlist. To me if i could have more than one wishlist (like "I want it NOW! "I want it" and "I only want it if nothing better is available") would be ideal. Then I went to borrow just stuff on my wishlist, because I don't always have the time to browse the inventory when I want to borrow a book. So now my wishlist is thousands of books, and by removing a list view from it they rendered it unusable. I cannot possibly just REMEMBER every book on my wishlist, even with a pretty HUGE book cover. NOPE, no way. BTW, does anybody have any idea why the covers have to be HUGE? I would think that even if someone wants to base the decision on a cover alone, they would be able to enlarge it sufficiently to see the detail that would help them to make up their mind.

Well, then this whole change only makes sense to the people who got paid to implement it.

[harriska2]

Yeah, they really need to make the wishlist more sortable (date added, by author, by title) and just a plain list without pictures. I have 8 pages and it is a PITA to look through it to find a book to move to my hold list.

On the other hand, they did add "Remove" to your Recommended list. My list was getting long with ones I recommended and already checked out and ones that were recommended but not available.

[dki]

I never recommend anything anymore, because when I did so, the book was added after such a long time, I already read it and I think 2 subsequent parts. That's what I said, everybody's different, and this website is good for illiterate mathematicians right now, if such a thing exists. I have no idea why that would be a target audience, but accordingly, i would like to get my tax $$ back, since all of my preferences were soundly ignored and disposed of. I guess the best way for me to figure out what I want to read now is to borrow 15 books (the limit, I cannot borrow less, because I am not going to count them, so I'll be borrowing till I have to stop), look through them, return ones I don't feel like reading, borrow another 15, or whatever number, and repeat the process until I have enough good prospects. It's an expensive way of finding a book to read, but I did not choose this, it was forced upon me. I am not going to be weaving back and forth between the covers and a single book synopsis, I don't have time for that. I frequently change my mind, go back etc, so borrowing all and returning not wanted will be the best solution at the moment.

[4691mls]

Have you used the Feedback feature? It's up in the top right corner in small print. You have to get through some annoying questions like "how likely are you to recommend Overdrive to a friend?" but eventually you get some blank space to type in your comments or complaints.

Who knows if they take those seriously, but maybe if enough people complain about the same thing someone will notice. I complained about the lack of a list view in the wishlist, and suggested they make it possible to select more than one subject at a time in Advanced Search (for example, it would be nice to be able to search the Mystery, Suspense and Thriller categories all together instead of having to do three separate searches). I think I complained about something else too but it's been a few weeks and I don't remember for sure.

[Blossom]

I say hit Overdrive's Facebook site with comments to bring back the limit/loans/hold counter. That's really the only complaint I have.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[4691mls]

One of my holds says #1 on 1 copy, then when I click on the question mark it says "There are (at most) 2 people ahead of you in line"

[dki]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Have you used the Feedback feature? It's up in the top right corner in small print. You have to get through some annoying questions like "how likely are you to recommend Overdrive to a friend?" but eventually you get some blank space to type in your comments or complaints.

Oh yes, I have . I am highly unlikely to recommend the overdrive to anybody, and I did not hesitate to make it known.

I also put several tickets repeatedly requesting the instructions on how to get the list view of my wishlist. Most answers went something like that:
"I appreciate your feedback about the new website and have shared your suggestion with the OverDrive development team. OverDrive greatly values feedback from users like you to help us make our products and services better. Once our development team reviews your suggestion, we'll determine if and how it should be implemented.
The developers are aware of many of the issues you have presented and are already working hard on fixing them. You should see many of these features return in a future update to the website.
The new OverDrive is continuously evolving with new features and enhancements, so please stay tuned for future updates.
Unfortunately, I can't provide any dates for when features will return.
I encourage you to complete our feedback survey to let us know about your interest in the return of previous site features. "

To which I usually responded that I was not attempting to make any suggestions, as I do not want to be impolite, and I would have to be if I was to make suggestions about what can be done with the "new and improved" overdrive. Finally I got this:
"I apologize for any confusion. Unfortunately, at this time, the List View has been removed from the Wish List on the new OverDrive websites. We apoloigize (sic) for any inconvenience. "

I made a suggestion then that the list view is also removed from the search view. Why do things by halves? Let's go for 100% unusable website for everybody. Why only discriminate against people using a wishlist feature, and not against people using the search feature? I rarely use search, so it's not necessary that the results are shown in a list view. As a matter of fact, why discriminate against people who want to read book synopsis, and not against people who want to look at the cover? I need to suggest that the cover icons are made blank. Makes no difference to me, so why bother with loading the actual images?

Also, what I don't get how they call features that existed and worked perfectly well in the Overdrive for years "new"? So I can now take something away, and say I will maybe restore it at some future unsure date as a "new" feature? I guess this works only if you are being paid out of the public funds.

[dki]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

One of my holds says #1 on 1 copy, then when I click on the question mark it says "There are (at most) 2 people ahead of you in line"

Well, here's the reason why the helpful loan and hold counter pop-ups cannot be implemented. "New and improved" overdrive can't count. Be prepared, make sure that your calculator app is ready when you're using your friendly library now.

[4691mls]

After the last big site overhaul a couple years ago, list view disappeared - I think at that time it was when you pulled up a category, there was no list view. They did eventually bring it back. Probably got a lot of complaints. You would think they would have learned from that, but apparently not........

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Sorry, I'm not interested in sharing my location.

If you post just the number at the end of the URL, anybody can see the book at their own library, even if the library doesn't own it.

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by dki

I am highly unlikely to recommend the overdrive to anybody, and I did not hesitate to make it known.

That "would you recommend" is a generic question on the survey, and doesn't really apply to Overdrive. Either your library uses Overdrive for their ebook fulfillment, or they don't. If they do, and you want to read ebooks from your library, you must use Overdrive...you don't have a choice.

Sure, you could tell other people in your town who want to read ebooks from the library, "don't use Overdrive", but that's the same as telling them "don't borrow ebooks".

One other thing I have run into the past few days is that my "Checkouts" list doesn't always sort from newest to oldest...it just picks a random order. I have to refresh the page a few times to get it to sort. I like it sorted because it helps decide which book to read next (closest to expiring usually comes first).

[John F]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

That "would you recommend" is a generic question on the survey, and doesn't really apply to Overdrive. Either your library uses Overdrive for their ebook fulfillment, or they don't. If they do, and you want to read ebooks from your library, you must use Overdrive...you don't have a choice.

Sure, you could tell other people in your town who want to read ebooks from the library, "don't use Overdrive", but that's the same as telling them "don't borrow ebooks".

...

My library uses several services for ebooks. They are very responsive to customer/patron feedback.

I've also read that other libraries have switched from Overdrive to other services.

If you ignore your customers...

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by John F

My library uses several services for ebooks. They are very responsive to customer/patron feedback.

I've also read that other libraries have switched from Overdrive to other services.

If you ignore your customers...

Other services are worse. My home library essentially dropped Overdrive in favor of Axis360, which is horrible.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Other services are worse. My home library essentially dropped Overdrive in favor of Axis360, which is horrible.

Agreed! My home library switched to 3M Cloud Library. Luckily I still have free access to Overdrive through my county residency rather than simply my city services.