[WEB4LIB] RE: Web based reserve item request form design

[Thomas Bennett]

I failed to mention that the web form is served from our Zope server which allows the user to submit one request per form which is then added to our PostgreSQL database.  The new page after submitting a request is the same form with the essential user information username, email address, course number, and department already filled in and ready to accept another request.  The current time and date is automatically timestamped into a field in the database just to let the ereserve staff member know when the f
orm was submitted, this also allows the user to not to have to fill in more blanks on the form.  The ereserve staff member goes to a URL on the Zope server to view each submission allowing that staff member to print the requests and delete requests on an individual basis.  These records are actually deleted although a boolean field could have been added to not show the request as new any more if it was decided to keep all the requests for any statistical purpose.

Thomas

-----Original Message-----
Fro
m: web4lib at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Thomas Bennett
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2001 4:27 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] RE: Web based reserve item request form design



Essentially we have four forms for requests.  Two are Adobe Acrobat if the faculty member supplies the materials.  The other two are web forms, one for "photocopies (journal articles and book chapters)", and one for books, audio tapes, CDs.
The page and all info 
is at:

http://www.library.appstate.edu/reserves/


Thomas
-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Stacy Pober
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2001 1:42 PM
To: Multipl
e recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Web based reserve item request form design


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 xer
oxes 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 t
he 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 a
re 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 sh
eet 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 au
tomatically 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