This is admittedly a rant!
Our Pima County Recorder has a new but certainly not improved website. The design is inept, and the search function does not work.
For example, the entry window for the range is 80 characters wide, all the way across the screen, but all that is needed is two characters, like 13 (they actually want 13E, but that is not necessary because in this county they are all E). There are no directions on what to enter (13 or 13E) and what is really needed is a drop down menu.
The search function for a record of survey in a subdivision does have a drop down menu for the name of the subdivision, but the search always returns a "Not Found" message.?ÿ
So, this morning I was downtown to file some record of surveys, and asked to talk to someone about the non-working search function. Nice man entered the data, and "Not Found" came up. He called a higher up, entered the data again, and "Not Found" appears. She is mystified.?ÿ
My parting shot was, "The new website stinks." She said they knew that, with almost a sigh.?ÿ
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At least they admit it. Meanwhile the Maricopa County website constantly gives 500 errors, and I don't know how much time I waste waiting for it to verify that I'm human, or I am using a "safe" IP address.
The recorders website for the entire State of Alaska is far better than any of the ones i've seen here.
Remember-----WE are from the GOVERNMENT and WE are here to help YOU.
On a related note the Washington County, Oregon County Surveyor Records website was recently updated. After a period of getting used to the changes I'd rate it as functioning well. Have your people call their people.
The Multnomah County, Oregon site is also functional. Most others I've tried are various degrees of frustrating.
king County WA (Seattle) went through the same thing a little over a year ago. Plenty of complaints (HUGE) and there was a collective sigh; sorry, we're doing the best we can...
NO YOU'RE NOT! you picked the low bidder and you got exactly what you paid for!
Eventually, they got it to the point we could tolerate it, but it was still a far cry from where it was.
almost without fail, people that aren't qualified nor have ever worked with or used databases for anything are being Allowed to make decisions on software and purchases that they should have assistance with from someone else whom does.
Excel sheets are not a database. Unfortunately too many people still think excel is the high bar for tabulated information and the only thing that can change that is complaints and abject failure.
There are some pretty slick operating offices out there,amoungst the flotsam and jetsam, but seem like islands in the big picture.
Easy test for the first pass on a new website for searches is to just type one letter.
then two.
see what populates the search and then try a number.
string searches for the data we use and need is inadequate and shows that a DBA wasn't a part of the process and that will be a tough time to use that until you decipher their methods.
All the while asking questions of the people behind that counter because theyve been suffering in silence being indoctrinated to that system and will likely be your best opportunity to get glimpses into how it's going to help you too.
Carry on. posit your recent poorly designed database woes...
almost without fail, people that aren't qualified nor have ever worked with or used databases for anything are being Allowed to make decisions on software and purchases that they should have assistance with from someone else whom does.
In Juneau, they decided to meter the on-street parking with kiosks placed in strategic locations. You paid and went back to the car and put the receipt where the cops could see it. Weel the one they assigned to examine the possibilities, and make the contract was totally out of his element. It's not totally his fault, some would lie with the vendor, but they did not take into account the weather of Juneau and that downtown Juneau is on the waterfront of Gastineau Channel. They failed within a year of being installed.
Scanning is ongoing, ongoing, ongoing at the Vault here. The Books are gone, there are 4 computer stations set-up for research, it's the biggest cluster ever.
When will it be done?
No one seems to know.
Those of us who majored in Agricultural Engineering had a saying that fit.
"If you want to build a corn harvester, you hire an Agricultural Engineer. But, if you want to build a corn grinder, you hire a Mechanical Engineer."
One major involved understanding the biological material being handled by the machinery while the other focused on only the machinery.
Use the correct tool (profession) to do the job correctly.
Our local (Cobb County, Georgia) Clerk of Superior Court website is relatively easy to navigate and it is free.
Check out https://research.cobbsuperiorcourtclerk.com/
There is a statewide Clerks website Georgia Superior Court Clerks Cooperative Authority, but it is not free. There is a monthly fee and a cost for every page you print. There is a fee for every document filed to maintain and update the site. We (surveyors) had a bit of a tiff with the Clerks when the legislation was introduced. They only wanted (and got) 300 dpi for scans and digital recordings. 300 is fine for most text but can be a bit lacking for some drawings.
These DO NOT go back to day one of the records but are kept up to date.
Andy
quality and usability generally comes down to cost. Four local counties use 'Logan' systems and it works well and is user friendly. Then there is our City that uses the clunky and probably free (to the Clerk) Virginia Supreme Court system. Just fyi, we have to pay $600/yr each for remote access to these databases. The City clerk says the 'Logan' system costs too much.
Then there are the offshore and/or dbs programmers who compile large libraries into their code, have lots of bells and whistles, but lack the basic search functions. Perhaps these clerks should just provide a link to download their database as it will save them and us time and money.
@jitterboogie And that is why I left the firm I worked for in Florida. I had been writing survey software for years and I was the only one who understood computers, but was blindsided with the news "they" had bought an elaborate computer system. And it was a dog. I mean it was bad, and I was expected to use it and make it work, so out I went. If I remember correctly there was a strict set of instructions for booting up, which took about five minutes. Shutting down was just as bad.
