[Web4lib] AJAX on library websites?

[steven perkins]

Maurice:

Have you had a seeing impaired user try your system using a
screenreader like JAWS or HOMEPAGE READER?  Were they able to use the
site as intended? I am interested in how AJAX and similar techniques
are meeting accessibility standards under state and federal
diasability statutes.  Any one tested them yet?

Regards,

Steven C. Perkins
Coordinator of Reference Services
University of Houston


On 12/20/05, Maurice York <maurice.york at emory.edu> wrote:
> We started playing with AJAX this fall for ReservesDirect, our ereserves
> software. We've implemented it on the staff side of the system for lookups
> of users and classes. The AJAX lookups have been a huge benefit in terms of
> streamlining the interface and improving usability for staff. Looking up
> courses, especially when you have a database that lists all courses taught
> back to 1999, turns out to be more complicated than you might think at
> first. By using AJAX, we cut down the number of mouse clicks by two and
> three clicks and were able to get rid of a great deal of page-reloading that
> was necessary to populate forms based on user selections. Now we can do live
> searches and refine results on the fly.
>
> For example: give me classes taught by Davidson, A for the Biology dept with
> the name "bacteria" in the class title.
>
> Of course, AJAX introduces some browser compatibility issues, so we're
> confining it to the staff side for now until we can get a better handle on
> how it behaves under intense use in production before we expose it to
> instructors and staff. But for forms with multiple fields that refine
> results based on user entries, you just can't beat AJAX.
>
> Oh, and to solve the drop-down of results obscuring the submit button, we
> solved that in a couple of ways: first, put the submit button out to the
> side of the form fields, and second, put a max-height style on the box and
> give it a scroll bar.
>
> (For those interested in seeing this in action, the version of
> ReservesDirect with AJAX lookups won't be released until the first week of
> January, but when it's out you can take a look by going to our demo site (
> http://reservesdirect.org/demo) and logging in as staff. It is implemented
> on many of the "manage classes" and "manage users" tabs.)
>
> -Maurice
>
>
> --
> ************************************
> Maurice York
> Team Leader, Circulation and Reserves
> Woodruff Library
> Emory University
> Atlanta, GA 30322
> mcyork at emory.edu
>
> On 12/19/05, David Walker <dwalker at csusm.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Amy, et al.,
> >
> > I've been putting together an A9-style search for the Library here at
> > San Marcos using AJAX as part of a project we call 'Xerxes'.  It's still
> > in beta (and a little rough around the edges), but the book search is
> > functioning alright:
> >
> > http://library.csusm.edu/search/books/
> >
> > We're using our catalog's (Innovative) XML server as well as the Melvyl
> > (Aleph) XML server to bring back results, as well as some screen
> > scrappers for our regional union catalog and Britannica.
> >
> > The plan will be to incorporate our article databases using the Metalib
> > X-Server, which would appear as the 'journal and newspaper' column, or
> > perhaps in certain cases using the XML gateways of individual databases
> > where advantageous.
> >
> > --Dave
> >
> > =================
> > David Walker
> > Web Development Librarian
> > Library
> > Cal State San Marcos
> > 760-750-4379
> > =================
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
> > [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Amy M Ostrom
> > Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 7:00 PM
> > To: web4lib at webjunction.org
> > Subject: [Web4lib] AJAX on library websites?
> >
> > Dear Web4libbers:
> >
> > Sorry for multiple emails.  I am wondering if anyone else has been
> > following AJAX (asynchronous javascript and xml) and is thinking about
> > implementing it somehow into their library design?  The University of
> > Wisconsin directory ( http://www.wisc.edu/directories/?name= ) is an
> > example, and using it I thought this new combination of web tools could
> > be a great benefit to libraries.  Any insight or examples would be
> > wonderful!  Thank you.
> >
> > In peace,
> >
> > Amy M Ostrom
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--
Steven C. Perkins       SCPerkins at gmail.com