Lexis Nexis Needs Another New Interface?!?

Today in my inbox was yet another announcement of pending changes for Lexis Nexis Academic. Not content to leave their terrible search interface alone, LN decided to change to another annoyingly unhelpful interface only nine months ago. Just as soon as I (and every other librarian, I suspect) managed to create updated search guides, LN tweaked it just enough to require new images and instructions in all my guides.

Now, I will admit the the navigation menu on the right hand side was particularly annoying, but I'm not sure that it was any more annoying than having to go through a whole new round of SnagIt captures!

But with only nine months since the last change, LN has decided to revamp the search page once again. There are four possibilities making the rounds, and I just can't decide between them. They all manage to be annoying in their own individual ways! I would cheer this change if I thought it would actually shift to something markedly better, but there seems no hope of that.

When, oh when, will LN learn that they should just create a search interface that looks like ProQuest or Ebsco? Let us choose to search the title or author without having to learn some secret coding! Make grouping similar words obvious by having multiple boxes joined by AND! That giant empty keyword box could incite writers block - all gaping and confusing. How on earth is a new searcher supposed to have any idea what to do? Most of the librarians I know struggle to find what they want in that infernal database. Even the IRS produces more coherent forms!

But, before I get too far into this, I must stop myself. One LN complaint at a time! There are so many to go into, I need to pace myself.

Why this blog?

Because I'm tired of searching databases and websites, only to be annoyed by the odd choices, lack of choices, and general clumsiness of them all. And I'm sure that everyone else is tired of hearing my complaints.

So, here you go folks: you can easily ignore my tirades, or comment along with them. I'm sure I can find something wrong with everything, and I expect the same from everyone else.