Web based reserve item request form design
Stacy Pober
Spober at manhattan.edu
Thu Dec 13 13:37:13 EST 2001
I would like to create an online reserve form for the
faculty to use to request that materials be put on reserve.
Being the sort of person who doesn't want to re-invent the
wheel, I was thinking that some folks here might already
have forms online for this at their institutions that might
give me some good design ideas.
Our current system for paper reserves is a simple form where
the teacher lists all the xeroxes and books they wish to put
on reserve and they specify the number of copies and length
of time that each item can go out. We just started using
the Docutek EReserve system which will let us digitize many
of the xeroxed reserve items as well, but the faculty isn't
used to this idea yet.
I would ideally like one form to do it all: list paper
copies, videos, and books with the requested circulation
specs they request, plus a place where they must specify
whether or not we can digitize the stuff and whether they
have a scanned or fax-ed in copy of something that is
already in a digital format that they'd like mounted on the
ERes system.
There could be some copyright info they could click past to
submit the form as well (as in "Here are some guidelines
on copyright and 'fair use'")
PLUS, I would really like it if the form after submission
came to our circulation staff in a form that THEY could
print out to use instead of their current reserve sheets.
The current reserve sheet system is a problem because many
faculty haven't been listing important elements like the
exact course number or the date they want the material on
and off reserve, so the current reserve book has a lot more
stuff than is really used. I could use a form-checking
javascript to insure an online form had some of the
essential elements filled-in.
Right now, we have an online form that generates an email
to the circ department when someone wants to request a book
that is in storage. However, the email that is generated is
relatively skeletal in format (field name, entry,linebreak)
It's fine for its purpose, but since a reserve form would
generate more complex information, I'd prefer to have it
come in to the circ desk mail as an html mail they can
print out and use as a reference sheet if at all possible.
Can anyone point me to some similar online forms and/or
how-to info? Even if the form isn't for the exact same
purpose, if there's a form you use for some other purpose
that automatically produces a nice HTML mail or even a
clearly formatted text document as the result, I'd like
to see it.
--
Stacy Pober
Information Alchemist
Manhattan College Libraries
http://www.manhattan.edu
spober at manhattan.ed
More information about the Web4lib
mailing list