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My library app (http://www.videlibri.de http://www.videlibri.de) is failing since 2006 It reminds the users when they need to return books borrowed from public
by benibela 7y ago
My library app (http://www.videlibri.de http://www.videlibri.de) is failing since 2006
It reminds the users when they need to return books borrowed from public libraries to protect them from paying late fees. It is extremely useful for library users, but they do not know that it exists.
First I wrote it for Windows and Linux, told the librarians about it and they said, we do not want any apps. Now the libraries have Android apps, so I ported it to Android, but when I tell the librarians about it, they say, we already have an app, we do not need two apps. But they still do not Windows and Linux apps.
I cannot test it without traveling in person to the public library in Germany and renting some books, so when the librarians changes something on their webpage, it stops working; and I cannot fix it, until someone from there tells me what was changed, so it is losing functionality every year
- karatestomp 7y agoDo German libraries not email reminders? Also I usually shy away from projects that can be replaced with a “hey Siri”—if people aren’t already taking the 5 seconds to set a reminder, they probably don’t care that much.
- benibela 7y agoSome send email reminders and some do not. But I primarily wrote it because of a library that sends reminders. I borrowed books there, did not set a reminder myself, since they always send reminders, and then they did not send reminders. "We had a mail server failure", and then I had to pay 60€, because they cannot maintain their servers properly. And it has more features. It also renews the books automatically to extend the lending period. Siri cannot renew the books. And it keeps a list of all books. Before I had it, I had read books that I would like to read again, but I do not remember which books that were
- karatestomp 7y agoWhoa. German libraries don’t mess around with the late fees I guess.
- nkrisc 7y agoWow, that's quite a fee. Here in the US, every library district I've lived in had paltry late fees. As in, maybe a few dollars for many weeks overdue.