Alternatives to the PDF form

The other day I was looking at a library's website and noticed that they still use PDF forms for various needs.  And it kinda stunned me, because I'm so used to having things delivered by e-mail.  And no I'm not criticizing the library for using these, it maybe all they can do with their current system.

But I started thinking...what are some options?  What could be used so that you didn't have to fill in PDF's by hand or try type everything in that one small line in a fillable form (y'all know what I'm talking about)?  What could you do to help process information faster?  Or tabulate data?

And it came to me in a flash.  And I gotta admit...I really didn't want to write about it because I wanted to save this for something else.  But I realized ideas deserve to be shared (and heck someone else is probably already doing this...)  But the idea...use Google Documents.  It has a handy built in option for doing forms.

There are a variety of reasons for this, such as:

1. It's free.  You definitely can't beat that price.
2. It's easy to set up and doesn't require someone that can program.
3. It's easily customizable from picking drop down menus to how the background looks.  It's also relatively easy to go back in and add new features.
4. It makes statistics keeping a breeze.  No more trying to sort and tabulate by hand.  All of the forms are dumped into a Google Spreadsheet that can be exported as needed, sorted for specific needs. 
5. You have access to the data anywhere.  So if you're at conference and have a few minutes you could start working on filling requests or processing data.
6. It's easy to move and share the data that you have. 
7. No more worries about deciphering handwriting!
8. Saves trees

Are there security concerns for doing this option?  Sure, there is for anything.  You would be trusting Google with your data.  It's happened before where Google has accidentally made some documents that were private, public (this has only happened once to my knowledge.)   If someone hacks your Gmail account the information could be compromised.  And these sound like really scary things, because they are.  But there are concerns with any option that you choose.  You have to balance what you think will work best for you.  Perhaps PDF forms will still be a good option.  Perhaps something else will be. 

But the thing to remember is that you have some options.

Tech Review--Screen sharing applicaton

One of my interests is keeping an eye out on new websites/services that can be utilized within the library, particularly if they are free. In fact I did a presentation on it a while back. Well I keep discovering new services since that presentation and thought I'd review a few, both good and bad, and share with you all. 1st up screen sharing!

When I was in library school it seemed like everyone was talking about screen sharing. It was the new "hot topic" that allowed us to better serve our patrons. It always seemed to me that it was clunky, hard to use, and required a download. Since I left library school it seems like screen sharing has faded into the background (just my general impression.) Well recently I stumbled across a site called Screen2.com.

It's a very basic website, without a whole lot of information. The interface is simple to use and it does have a tutorial on how to use the service. Here's how it works: You create a name, your friend creates a name, one of you invites the other one (after telling what your anme is through phone, im, etc), and your invited to screen share with your friend. A screen pops up and you can see what each other is doing. That's it! No downloads, all free, and the software follows you along to whever you go...to an extent. They only give you 6 websites to choose from and you can't really dig into the site to much (see my notes below.)

Here are the positives of the site:

• It's free
• No downloads
• Relatively easy to use

Negatives:

• Only searches selected sites for a list of 6 (Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, ESPN Sports Zone, YouTube, and eBay) These sites are not necessarily the American version. Google for example is Google.fi
• You can't dig deeper than the base url. For example if you search for Jack Tarver Library in Google, you can get to the home page, but once you dig further into the site it stops screen sharing.
• Seems a bit iffy on privacy. There's nothing indicating how long information is kept or what it's used for or if they keep it.
• The username changes each time. For example if theres another Andrew signed on at that moment, the site adds other numbers to your name. This would seem to me to allow the possibility of connecting with the wrong user. It also means there is no way to personalize the site.
• Because the username changes it means each time you want to use it, you have to contact the person you want to share with and let them know who you are.
  

While the site has it's benefits, such as showing someone how to navigate youtube and Wikipedia, the fact that you an't dig deeper into the links, such as those in Wikipedia, makes the service not very useful for libraries. The fact that's its also limited to just 6 sites means that you can't go very far into helping patrons. Of greater concern to me is that there is little to no information on who the group is, their purpose is, and what their privacy policy is. All of these reasons make me want to avoid utilizing this software beyond a simple tool to introduce screen sharing to folks.

GA COMO Presentation

For those that were at my presentation this afternoon thanks for listening and congrats you found me on the web! For other folks here is my PPT presentation:

GA COMO-Free! Alternatives to expesnive technology

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: ga como)

And here is the delicious list of software.
http://delicious.com/GAashuping
I'm still working on adding stuff in so don't worry if you don't see all the items from the presentation yet, they'll be there. I'll blog more about this later as I must finish posting/updating elsewhere :)

***Update--I've actually added the link for delicious (sorry!) I'll also be doing another blog post this weekend on my notes from the conference so if you weren't able to come you can still get the gist I've what I said.