[Web4lib] AJAX on library websites?

[Maurice York]

Hi Steve,
This is part of the reason we're confining AJAX to the staff side. We have a
finite number of staff active in the system and we know how they use the
system and what they need in order to function. So to answer your question,
no, we haven't started to investigate the accessibility aspect yet, but it
will be important to do so if we roll out the AJAX functionality to the
student/instructor side. Our web services leader was on the original
committee that drafted the section 508 guidelines, so when it comes time to
look at accessibilty, we'll be going to him and asking him to lead the
effort.

If anyone else has heard of any work done in this area, I would be
interested to hear about it.

-Maurice

On 12/20/05, steven perkins <scperkins at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Web4lib mailing list
> > > Web4lib at webjunction.org
> > > http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
> > >
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> >
>
>
> --
> Steven C. Perkins       SCPerkins at gmail.com
>



--
************************************
Maurice York
Team Leader, Circulation and Reserves
Woodruff Library
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322
mcyork at emory.edu