A byproduct of my decade-long library investigation was the opportunity to check the evolution of the 33 London borough websites.
My 2010 post included links to the webpages where each borough listed their public libraries, so the first thing I did in 2020 was click each one. Unsurprisingly most of those clicks failed. Eight of the boroughs told me "Page not found", two gave me a 404 error and four took me to the homepage.
I also got...
» Something has gone wrong
» Sorry - page not found
» Sorry - the page could not be found
» Sorry, something’s gone wrong
» Sorry, we couldn't find that page
» The connection has timed out
» The page you requested cannot be found
» The requested page could not be found
» The specified URL cannot be found
» You are not authorized to access this page (Croydon)
» Warning: Potential Security Risk Ahead (Hounslow)
You'd expect public service websites to have updated in the last ten years, what with the need to be mobile-friendly, and indeed they have. Every single one of the boroughs now lists their libraries on a different URL to that used in 2010. But not every borough makes it easy to get there. So special praise to the eight boroughs who forwarded me to the correct webpage, namely Camden, Haringey, Hillingdon, Kensington & Chelsea, Merton, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Westminster. Some IT teams still have their long-term heads screwed on.
Jumping ahead to 2020, four boroughs have particularly unimpressive library lists...
• Tower Hamlets has been using ideastore.co.uk for more than a decade, which is probably why their 2010 link still worked. But they're also the only London borough not to provide a full list of their 2020 libraries (because all mention of those closed during the pandemic has been removed).
• Bromley chooses not to list its libraries on its own website because it's outsourced them all to Better, which means locations and opening hours can only be found on the Better website instead.
• Sutton's list of libraries isn't on its own website, it's at the wilfully unfriendly URL llc.ent.sirsidynix.net.uk/client/en_GB/sutton/?rm=LIBRARIES0|||1|||1|||true. They could hide this gubbins if they wanted to but no, Sutton drags you under the bonnet.
• Greenwich's Libraries page is a minimalist index optimised for mobile connections. Their directory of libraries features a map and a list of libraries BUT the list stops at 10, leaving the last two libraries (West Greenwich and Woolwich) to appear on a second page. Why not all twelve in one go? It may be 'best practice' but it's also bloody stupid impractical jobsworth muppetry.
I look forward to checking the 2020 links in 2030. I'd bet money that Sutton will fail.
