With the changeover to Google Apps for Education, Wellesley College’s Special Collections has adopted some new and exciting technological improvements for its readers. Until yesterday, visitors to Special Collections were asked to register by filling out a paper registration form. Once the form was completed, student assistants entered the information into an Excel spreadsheet in order to have it available electronically. In addition, the original signed paper form was retained for our records. In this same fashion, call slips, used for retrieval of materials within Special Collections, were completed and signed by hand, and then manually entered by staff into an Excel spreadsheet.
Now that we have converted to Google Apps, we have devised an entirely new (and paperless!) method for registering readers. Upon entering Special Collections, readers will go to our guest computer, where an internet browser will be open to a Google Doc Registration Form. Readers can enter all their personal information, and as soon as they hit ‘submit,’ their information is saved into a spreadsheet that the staff of Special Collections can view. The form also contains an online signature so that we can verify that their information is accurate and true; therefore we no longer need any paper for the registration process.
We have also created a Google Doc Call Slip Form – now, after readers register on the computer, another tab in the browser opens to an online call slip for Special Collections materials. As they fill out the call slip form, the staff of Special Collections can view their entries in real time, and are able to complete a paper slip immediately. Better yet, the information that would previously have been entered into the database by hand is automatically saved on the computer in a Google spreadsheet! In the near future, we hope to devise a method of generating printed call slips for retrieval of materials that can come right from the Google spreadsheet.
Google Apps has revolutionized Special Collections’ registration and call slips generation and will help us to cut down on paper usage and time spent on data entry, thus allowing us to devote more time helping readers with their research.
Erin Corcoran ‘13
Special Collections Student Assistant