[Web4lib] PC Reservation software

[Louise Alcorn]

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Louise E. Alcorn     --    Reference Technology Librarian
West Des Moines Public Library
4000 Mills Civic Pkwy
West Des Moines IA 50265
(515) 222-3573      louise.alcorn at wdm-ia.com
http://www.wdm.lib.ia.us

>>> Kevin Devine <kdevine at euclidlibrary.org> 06/08/05 05:07PM >>>
Not trying to be contrary, but why does the PC Reservation software have 
to integrate with your ILS?  What functions of the reservation system 
and the ILS need to share?  I am just curious, at our library, the two 
systems are completely seperate.

Some libraries use their library card numbers to have patrons sign in to their systems, AND verify that the patron does not have outstanding fines above X dollars, in which case the reservation system has to authenticate against the ILS database to verify the patron's current standing.  You can just have them set up to verify the unique first run of numbers, in which case it doesn't need to authenticate against the database, but you can't then limit individual patrons from using your PC's if they are in violation of a particular policy.  

For Brian (initial poster):  Michael Sauers and I co-authored a book reviewing some of these types of systems (both print and time mgt systems were looked at).  For what it's worth, we got a lot of initial ideas from searching the Web4Lib archive for users' comments on different products.  (We then used many of those comments, attributed, in our book :)  You might try a quick scan, though I haven't heard them talked about on Web4Lib recently as much as in the past, perhaps because they're becoming fairly ubiquitous.

Best,
Louise