[OPLINLIST] Paging Patrons, Internet signups, etc.

[Bill]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, may I suggest that you consider setting up a version of CourseRegistration 6.5 from http://robotutor.com to arrange your computer use?  

I haven't thought it all the way through, but if you were to use it as a facility booking program, your computers could be set up as the equivalent of classes, and patrons could be registered to use them by signing up one person per computer per sesssion (defined by you as start and end time). 

You'd set up the item with a numbering system that indicates the computer number "class title" field and the time allowance, e.g. "0900-01MB Computer Use"," 0930-01MB Computer Use" would represent half-hour time slots at 9:00 AM and 9:30 AM respectively on computer #1 at the Main Branch.  Or, "30-04SB Computer Use" for 30 minutes on #4 at Suburban Branch.  It's completely flexible. 

You can limit the number of patrons signing up for that time slot to one only, with no waiting list, and registration could be as simple as keying in the patron's name.

At the end of the day, if you don't particularly care about statistics, you could have your server run a batch job that would simply replace the transaction files with an empty copy, all set for the next day's bookings.  On the other hand, if you needed to keep the stats, just run the built in summary registration report from any workstation, save it as a spreadsheet or .csv file, and cumulate them as necessary at the month end. The replacement batch could be run via Task Scheduler.

There's no automatic cutoff or notification, but you'd have an easy way of knowing who is supposed to be on a given machine, and you can take reservations for as many days/slots in advance as you decide to set up titles, on any other machine in the library.

The program is now freeware, uses an Access database on an IIS server or equivalent, so it will run standalone or on the web.


Worth a look anyway...

Cheers!			 
Bill
b.hudgins@lanepl.org
2004-02-20