[WEB4LIB] Re: ?making it easy for patrons to report typos in databases

[wl-mw at msln.net]

This may be too elementary for this list, but I'd love to know how to easily 
make a simple feedback form that works. I looked at the source code for Walt's 
Eureka feedback form but I don't understand the cgi-bin/.pl aspects of it, or 
the "input type" addresses. Can anyone help, perhaps off-list? I don't want to 
learn another language (beyond HTML and CSS) at the moment -- I'm just looking 
for a simple form program. Thanks.

~ Molly Wms.
-- 
Molly Williams
Volunteer, Waterboro Public Library
Weblog: http://www.waterboro.lib.me.us/blog.htm

Quoting Walt_Crawford at notes.rlg.org:

> 
> Phalbe,
> 
> If your search systems allow it, a "Feedback" link can be useful not only
> to report typos but also other problems, notes, even praise.
> 
> I'm coming from the "vendor side" in this case, but with years of
> personal/organizational experience. We added a Feedback link to Eureka,
> RLG's end-user search system, years ago; it opens up a text box for the
> message, with an optional e-mail address if the sender desires a response.
> 
> For a while, most of the feedback was various comments and complaints about
> the system itself. Now that we've addressed most of those complaints (which
> were quite legitimate), most of the feedback consists of suggestions about
> databases--notes on errors in some cases, notes from authors asking why
> such-and-such an article isn't included in others. We even get praise now
> and then, always astonishing in a feedback system.
> 
> Until the last few months, I responded to most feedback directly, with one
> of the other Eureka designers responding if I was out of town, unless a
> database-specific issue was better handled by our database managers. Now,
> the RLG Information Center is the first line of response, although--since
> most feedback now involves database issues--quite a few wind up with the
> database managers. Now, as then, we try to reply to every message that has
> a valid email address--frequently within half a day or less, which always
> seems to startle users.
> 
> I will say that:
> (a) the mechanism works,
> (b) the level of feedback has never been onerous--for us, typically about
> one a day for a system that sees around 100,000+ searches a week,
> (c) we've had fewer than a dozen curse-filled messages in the better part
> of a decade, but then we primarily serve colleges and universities, and
> (d) easy feedback mechanisms--preferably using a text entry box, NOT a
> mailto: link with its nasty invocation of MS Outlook!--make any Web site
> more user friendly, as long as the feedback isn't ignored.
> 
> You can try it out (Eureka, that is--feel free to click on Feedback, but
> please don't actually send feedback unless there's something you need to
> report!) here:
> http://www.rlg.org/eureka.html
> 
> -walt crawford, RLG, my own opinions only-

> Folks,
> 
> I've received a very interesting plea from a man who uses many library
> databases. He would like for libraries to make it easy to report typos
> they've discovered in their online databases. He even suggests that the
> "hit" page have a link that could be clicked on for this purpose.
> 
> Does anyone make a point of making it easy for patrons to do this kind of
> reporting? If so, would you please post your URL so I can see what you've
> done?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Phalbe Henriksen
> Director
> Bradford County Public Library
> Starke, FL