Meeting Room Web Interfaces Patron and Staff
Introduction
PALS developed web interfaces for library patrons to view and book available meeting rooms. The booking URL can be placed on a library's homepage so patrons can easily view meeting room availability and book a meeting room. Meeting rooms may be loaned in Alma without first being booked. The loan will display on the booking page.
There are two patron booking interfaces available, a calendar view and a mobile friendly view.
Library staff have a separate schedule that allows staff to see the patron who has the meeting room booked, loan a booked meeting room, and remove a booking. Staff can enter a booking for a patron but must have the patron's id.
Overview of Calendar patron interface
The patron meeting room booking interface can be used by patrons to book a meeting room for use in the future or to view what meeting rooms are available for use. If a meeting room is available, it can be loaned to a patron without being booked.
1.) How to book a room and Limits & parameters- Provide information about how a patron can book a meeting room. A library provides the booking time, release time and any other information they think will be useful to their patron.
2.) A library can provide a link to the mobile friendly view. The calendar view defaults to the current date.
3.) Pick a data allows a patron to book a study room on a date in the future. The number of dates in advance that a room can be booked is configured in the booking terms of use Future limit.
4.) The item records for the study rooms are displayed. The Description field of the item record is displayed. Typically, the room number or names is entered into the Description field. Text in the Public note of the item record displays as the second line. Information about room capacity, accessibility or other room features can be entered.
5.) Time slots for booking are half hour slots. The hours displayed are from the library hours.
6.) A red line provides the current time.
7.) A patron clicks in the calendar to select times
8.) Book it! displays a popup with room and time information and a patron must supply their login information.
9.) Information about whether the room is loaned, booked or if the booking is overdue
10.) Book it! Patrons can use this Book It! to book a room.
Patron books room
1.) A patron books a room by selecting sequentially time slots. If the patron selects more time than is allowed in the Booking Terms of use Booking length, the patron will get an error message.
2.) Patron clicks on Book it!
A Booking Information screen displays
3.) Booking Start Date, Start Time, End Date and End Time are displayed. The date and time are from the patron selection of date and time slots.
4.) User ID (Primary ID) the patron must enter a patron barcode or StarID. The User ID must be in the patron's Alma record.
5.) Book it! The patron clicks on Book it! to process the booking.
6.) Information message can be changed so patrons know who to contact at your library with questions.
The patron gets a booking confirmation The patron can return to the booking page
Bookings display in the patron's Primo account. A patron can cancel a booking in Primo. Bookings also display in Alma.
Overview of Patron Mobile Friendly View
The mobile friendly view is a different URL from the patron calendar view. The information for How to book a room and Limits & parameters is available from a drop down menu.
A patron can select a date and a room to see a list of available times to book. Filters are available to help patrons narrow a search to appropriate rooms. The filter text must be in the Item record Public Note field. Let PALS know the Filters your library needs and what text is in the public note and should be used as the filter.
1,) A patron can select a date.
2.) Select a room.
3.) Use a Filter. This is optional. The information must be in the Public note field. To create the filter tell PALS the text that is in the public note.
4.) Select time slots
5.) The selected booking date and time display. Patron must click on Book it
A Booking Information screen displays
6.) Booking Start Date, Start Time, End Date and End Time are displayed. The date and time are from the patron selection of date and time slots.
7.) User ID (Primary ID) the patron must enter a patron barcode or StarID. The User ID must be in the patron's Alma record.
8.) Book it! The patron clicks on Book it! to process the booking.
9.) Information message can be changed so patrons know who to contact at your library with questions.
The patron gets a booking confirmation The patron can return to the booking page.
Bookings display in the patron's Primo account. A patron can cancel a booking in Primo. Bookings also display in Alma.
Overview of Staff View
The staff view is a different URL than the patron view. The staff view requires a basic login to access it. The staff view is setup in a similar layout to the patron view. The staff view has additional information about a bookings or loans. Staff can Loan a booking. Staff can Remove a booking, Staff can see patron name and loan information. The booking start and booking end times display. Staff can book a room for a patron. Staff must know the patron's id to book a room.
The Staff view URL would not be placed on the library homepage because it has information about patrons.
1.) The staff view has a similar layout to the patron view. The staff view is identified.
2.) Staff can use Pick a date to see bookings for rooms in the future.
3.) The current time line is available. Staff may use the current timeline to know that a booking release time is past and the room can be loaned to another patron. Staff may use the timeline to see that a room is still loaned to a patron and the loan end time is past.
4.) A booking that can be loaned to the patron shows with the loan option. The booking can be removed.
5.) A loaned booking shows the loan start and end time.
6.) Bookings not ready to be loaned will show with the remove booking option.
Staff Create Bookings in Alma
Bookings are a type of a request. Like the physical request (hold), a booking can be entered from the bibliographic record or from the item record.
1.) Search for the room using the Physical title search
2.) Click on More actions (three dots)
3.) From the dropdown list select Request
4.) Request Type from the dropdown menu select Booking request
5.) Requester enter the patron information
6.) Description use the dropdown menu to select a room
7.) Date range enter the date of the booking. If the booking is for longer than the booking policy check the Override Booking Policies box.
8.) Pickup At select an option
9.) Click on Submit to enter the booking
When the Date Range is selected a pop box will display. Staff must select the date, and the hours. The hours are in military time. Then click on Apply
Bookings can be done from an item record,
1.) Display the items for a record
2.) Click on More actions (three dots)
3.) Select Request from the menu
The booking request form displays for staff to enter in patron information and booking information.
Staff view Bookings in Alma
Staff can view and manage booking in Alma. Bookings are a type of request and can be found under Fulfillment>Resource Requests>Monitor Requests & Item Processes
1.) Click on Fulfillment
2.) Click on Monitor Requests & Item Processes
3.) Booking requests display. Staff can Cancel or Edit a booking.
Configuration Overview
Bibliographic Record
To use the web interface, a library must first set up a basic bibliographic record. Typically, since a meeting room bibliographic record is not shared in the network zone. The record is only in the institution zone.
Item Record
The text in the "Description" field of the item record is displayed in the patron and staff web interfaces. Typically, libraries put the room number or name of the room in this field.
1.) General tab of an item record
2.) Text in Description field displays in web interface
The text in the "Public Notes" field of the item record is displayed in the patron and staff web interfaces. Typically, libraries use the public note to list room capacity and any features. If your library wants filters for the mobile friendly patron view the text must be in this field and the text to use for the filter must be given to PALS.
3.) Notes tab of an item record
4.) Public note text in this field will display.
If a room is not available for use and the library wants to not display the room, the Internal note 1 can be used. To not display a room in the web interfaces, enter the text NOT AVAILABLE in the Internal note 1 field.
1.) Notes tab of an item record
2.) Internal note 1 field has text NOT AVAILABLE
Loan Terms of Use
Set up a loan terms of use so the rooms can be loaned to the appropriate patron groups for the correct loan period. The loan period and the booking period should match. The Reloan limit policy may be helpful to stop a room from being loaned immediately again to the same patron.
Request Terms of Use
Because items are being booked, the policy "Is Requestable" should be set to "Not Requestable."
Pickup Locations can be set to a default Anywhere since requesting is not allowed.
Hold Shelf Period is No Hold Shelf Period.
Patron Limits
The number of Max. bookings for patron user groups should be updated in the Patron limits.
Loan Limits
Review loan limits if your library plans to loan a meeting room to a patron check that loan limits are not set too low.
Overdue and Lost Loan Profiles
Review the current overdue and lost loan profile. Overdue and lost loan notices may be set up for loaned rooms.
Booking Terms of Use
Booking Terms of Use control booking policies. Patrons can schedule or book the item for use in the future. The booking request can be viewed in Alma and in the room interfaces. The booking appears in the patron's Primo account and can be cancelled using Primo.
Booking Terms of Use Policy Types
Booking release time- If a booking is not loaned to the patron before the time period in the Booking release time, the item can be booked or loaned to a different patron. A common release time is 15 minutes. For example, I have a room booked for 2:00 pm if the room is not loaned to me by 2:16, the room can be loaned to a different patron. We are not able to show release time in the web interfaces. The release time is not available to the APIs. State the release time in the Limits and Parameters so staff can use it and the current timeline to know if a room can be loaned to a different patron.
Is item bookable- Policy must be bookable to allow a patron to book
Maximum allowed booking length- The booking period for the item. This should match the loan period.
Preview period- The amount of time before the booking start time that the booked item can be loaned to the patron. For example, I have booking that starts at 2:30 pm, if the preview period is 15 minutes the room can be loaned to me at 2:15 pm.
Pickup Locations- Location in the library that handles the item
Future Limit- How far in advance a patron or staff member can create a booking. This setting is used in the web interfaces to show the number of days in the calendar.
Back to back booking- The amount of time a patron must wait before booking the same item again.
Purged request fee- A fee can be added if a booking is not loaned to the patron.
Booking resolution- Booking requests can be set up to use hours or minutes. Typically for room booking minutes are used. This setting is used more for booking in Primo.
Closed library booking management- How to handle a booking period that includes closed library hours. Typically, for room booking, this is set to "Only allow booking during open time." In web room booking a patron can only book in the displayed hours. Booking can be done on different types of items. For example, if a library allowed a one week booking for DVDs this setting of closed library booking could be used to shorten a booking or lengthen a booking if the booking period falls during closed hours.
Fulfillment Unit Rule
After a booking Terms of Use has been added a Fulfillment unit rule for Booking must be added.
Alma configuration>Fulfillment>General>Other Settings
Other Settings enable_booking_workflow- If this is set to true bookings will appear in the hold shelf pick from shelf. If set to false, bookings will not appear in the hold shelf workflow or task lists.
Information needed to set up web booking pages
After the rooms can be booked and loaned to the appropriate patrons for PALS to setup the web calendar, mobile and staff booking pages we need:
Title for the page for example Meeting Rooms, Study Rooms, Group Study Rooms
MMS ID for the bibliographic record
Preview Period
Booking Period
Text for Limits & Parameters
Library code for hours
After the pages are setup, the URLs will be shared with your library. Try out the pages by booking or loaning the meeting rooms. Remember that the bookings or loans are in Alma. If you loan a meeting room in the web interface it will be loaned in Alma. After your library is satisfied, the patron page URLS may be placed on your library homepage so patrons can easily see meeting room availability and book meeting rooms. The staff URL should not be placed on library homepage. The staff URL has patron information.
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