A new web-based service

[Peter Konshak]

Hello,

I recently wrote this for a colleague and thought the list might enjoy
reading it:

As the technology head for a medium-sized public library, I am constantly
looking for new ways to serve the public better.  One of the ideas we had
was to try and create an e-mail notification system which would notify
patrons when we enter new titles into our collection which might interest
them.

At first, this seemed to be a daunting project.  Querying the system for
new titles was difficult enough (we have several dates on each record, none
of which were "perfect" to query on), but we'd also have to sort all the
new titles into categories, then match these categories to a user-entered
profile.  After some experimentation with various scripts, it appeared that
this might just work.  

Book Alert is divided into several modules.  First, a patron data-entry
module which resides on our web server.  Patrons can sign up using this
module.  Patrons are prompted for their library barcode, name, and phone
number.  Once that information is entered, patrons can then choose up to 10
of the 45 available categories to be notified about (patrons who wish to
see more categories are encouraged to sign up more than once).  Patrons can
generate a list of titles when they sign up, pulling from the last month's
new titles.  By entering their barcode and phone number, patrons can also
log in to the Book Alert server to change their profiles, update their
e-mail address, etc.  Patrons can also remove themselves from the service
if they choose to do so (although no one has).  The patron module is
written in the Cold Fusion language, and the patron data is stored in
Microsoft Access.

Behind the patron module lies the heart of the program: the data.  Each
month, the library database is queried to determine what new books have
been added.  This list is then compared to the previous month's list via
another Cold Fusion script to remove any titles which may be duplicates.
What is left is the "picklist", which Book Alert picks from.  Once the
picklist has been created, it is now time to categorize the titles. 

Categorizing the titles is relatively simple, but it took a bit of work to
set up.   We use Dewey call numbers, so each item in the picklist table is
examined by another Cold Fusion script.  Based on the Dewey number, it
assigns the title a category.  This process is not foolproof, and typically
there are 10-15 titles (out of 600+ per month) that fall through the cracks
and need to be manually assigned.  Once the picklist has been created and
categorized, it is time to send out the e-mail notifications.

Book Alert sends out a customized list to each patron once a month.  Once
the picklist is ready, it is simply a matter of clicking on a link to
"send" the customized lists out.  This is yet another Cold Fusion script,
which compares each patron's profile to each item on the picklist.  It
selects items with matching categories, placing them in an array.  The
entire array is then written into an e-mail, which is then sent out to the
patron.  This process is repeated for each patron until all the patrons are
complete.  The e-mail contains the title, author, call number, and category
for each item sent.  Patrons are encouraged to check the item status via
our web-catalog before coming in to look for items.

Book Alert is a new service for us, so it is hard to say yet if it is a
great success.  We have averaged around two signups per day, without doing
much promotion.  It took approximately 10 minutes to create the picklist
for this month, and another 5 minutes to generate the user lists.  Aside
from FTP'ing some data around, the process is largely automated and most
steps are accomplished by a single click on a web-based menu.

The Book Alert server is available at:

http://bookalert.carmel.lib.in.us

Feel free to try it out, but please use the barcode "test" so that I know
to delete your profile (or remove it yourself).

Peter Konshak



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Peter Konshak                             pkonshak at carmel.lib.in.us
Computer Technology Coordinator		
Carmel Clay Public Library              http://www.carmel.lib.in.us
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