New York Public Library (NYPL‪)‬ 4+

Thrilled to see a dedicated NYPL app. Been waiting for one for years. Has potential to be very useful tool.

Biggest initial gripe: Where are the LISTS and the ability to add to/manage them? Many books in NYPLs collection are unavailable to be checked out/put on hold. This is my primary use of the website/catalog beyond searching the catalog itself.

I’m not sure this has been thought through

I, I think like most people, leave my wifi on on my phone

At the library it does reconnect as it is a remembered network

But I still need to open a browser page to accept the terms and conditions. I may need to do this unpredictably again if my browser was refreshed or the NYPL branch network was

Otherwise the mobile checkout will get stuck as it can’t connect (it just said “loading” rather than something useful).

Alternatively I can shut off wifi on my phone. And of course remember to turn it in again later so I don’t use up my data plan.

This seems like a good deal of bother to just take out a book.

If I use the kiosk in my branch I have to remember to first scan my library card and then the NYPL barcode on the book(s).

Easier but still have to remember the sequence as there are no instructions at the kiosk (at least at my local branch)

Again, is this really worth it? Maybe if there are long lines, which I don’t see at my branch.

Most of this seems like technology for technology’s sake. A solution looking for a problem, which invariably causes other problems

Bottom line - perhaps useful at peak times once folks learn all this but when not peak then librarian check out is much easier and faster and hopefully will remain available.

Love having the app on my phone for easy access without having to log on to the website and it looks nice enough, but doing anything takes sooooo long (searching the catalog, requesting a hold, loading your holds/checkouts)—I spend more time looking at the spinner than anything else. I usually end up just using the website on my phone’s browser because, even with the extra step of logging in, it’s faster. If they could fix the slowness issues, the app would be great!