In my never-ending quest to bring you new and interesting services, here is - TA DA - the BookChecker."Great," you're saying. "What the heck is it?"
BookChecker is a simple little piece of code called a Java applet. When you visit our BookChecker Web page,you'll be instructed to bookmark the BookChecker by right clicking on it and adding it to your browser's list of Bookmarks, Favorites - whatever you call them. That's all you have to do to access the service.
Now, the fun part. Next time you are browsing for new books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble - most of the major online booksellers - when you find a book that really sounds great, remember that BookChecker is lurking in your Bookmarks menu. Go up to your Bookmarks, click on "DPPL BookChecker" and it will automatically open up a small window and search for that book in our Library Catalog. You'll know in seconds if we have the book, if it's available or checked out, and you can even place a hold on it. I think that's cool. Try it today! We've all made those online, impulse purchases that we've regretted, sooner or later. Borrow the book from us first, for free - then decide if you want to make it part of your permanent collection.
Click here to access BookChecker's information page and bookmark the URL. Or, you can find BookChecker under "Readers' Services" on our home page and on our newly redesigned Catalog home page. If you haven't seen our Catalog today, take a look. We've added links to the Catalog home page, giving you quick and easy access to account information, all of our "What's New" services and tutorials, and the BookChecker as well. Just another way DPPL is trying to make it easier than ever for you to find what you need, fast.
Got comments or questions about BookChecker? Just post them here and I'll get back to you. Have a great weekend, Des Plaines!
Very cool! This saved me from buying a pretty expensive spanish language book for my daughter. When I got it from the library, it turned out to be a poor translation -- not worth the money I would have spent.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your success story with us! And by the way, we are always looking for people to give us recommendations for our Spanish language collection. If you haven't already, consider filling out our online survey, under Readers' Services on our home page.
ReplyDeleteWe'd love to hear from more people who have tried the BookChecker.
BookChecker is awesome. I work at the library, but even if I didn't I would still think that this idea is the greatest. I was using it just the other day, going through Amazon's Top 10 Editor's Picks and putting holds as I went. It's really helpful to someone like me that's just mindlessly browsing. I see something I like, and then a click later I can see if we own it!
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