1. Using Software-as-a-Service for tracking document delivery (& ILL) requests Perseus Rex Molina Cataloger Librarian Br. Fidelis Leddy Learning Resource Center (LRC) De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (Manila) Jorge Erwin A. Rada Public Programs Librarian Janice D.C. Peñaflor Collection Development Librarian De La Salle University Libraries De La Salle University (Manila)

2. Outline Background of the case study Past problems – What we needed to solve How we solved it Results Issues and Recommendations

3. Introduction Philippine private Catholic university founded in 1911 by the Brothers of Christian Schools Libraries caters to an average of over 1,000 teaching academic staff, 16,000 undergraduate students and 4,000 graduate students every term (for 3 terms / year)

4. started out as one lowly library in 1956 but is now composed of – the main library called The Learning Commons – and several satellite libraries Introduction

5. What is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)? ● Part of “cloud computing” concepts ● Aka “hosted applications” ● software and associated data are centrally hosted on the cloud (over the Internet)

6. Issues in document delivery (DD) and interlibrary loan (ILL) in DLSU Libraries Requests can come from different channels Piece of paper / FormEmailChat messageWeb Form Text messageVideo CallTwitter messageFacebook message

7. There has been difficulty obtaining statistics for these services Piece of paper / Form Email Chat message Web Form Text message Video Call Twitter message Facebook message Issues in document delivery (DD) and interlibrary loan (ILL) in DLSU Libraries

8. Continuity between reference librarians in different shifts Issues in document delivery (DD) and interlibrary loan (ILL) in DLSU Libraries

9. Requirements for a solution Online central recording of all transactions regardless of channel DATABASE

10. Reasons why we chose Software-as-a- Service for a solution Faster deployment Simpler and easier than building from scratch Service continuity

11. How we solved it iFreeTools Creator Free plan: unlimited apps, 10 users, 2,500 records

12. iFreeTools Creator offers free hosted applications for business needs enables one to build custom database apps without programming skills required log in using a Google or Yahoo account How we solved it

13. iFreeTools Creator ● Built over Google App Engine ● What is Google App Engine? ● lets you run web applications on Google's infrastructure ● no servers to maintain ● supports apps written in several programming languages (Java, Python, or Go runtime environments) ● All applications can use up to 1 GB of storage and enough CPU and bandwidth to support an efficient app serving around 5 million page views a month, absolutely free How we solved it

14. DD/ILL Request Reference #Date requested Type of Request Source of Request Name of Requestor Dept.…. Record 1 Record 2 Record 3 Record 4 Record 5 …

15. How we solved it TIMELINE Data model Configuration JAN 2013 Tracking system went live FEB 2013 End of beta testing Upgrade to paid version AUG 2013 External requesting libraries must use online form SEP 2013

16. toggle visible columns, instant search, sorting, filtering How we solved it

17. ● Instant view: clicking on a row will show full details of the record at bottom of the page. How we solved it

18. ● Actions ● View Details ● Edit Details ● Delete ● Duplicate How we solved it

19. ILL/DD Tracking System

20. iFreeTools Creator

22. Results

23. “The Libraries’ forays into utilizing Software-as-a- Service applications have been successful so far, and not only are SaaS applications faster to deploy, but they free the Libraries from installation, maintenance and hardware requirements a typical software for team collaboration may demand.”

24. Issues and Recommendations ● For SaaS providers ● offer long/unlimited free trial that is as much as possible is close to the paid version ● For libraries ● make sure your data can be exported from system, then backup regularly! ● do a cost-benefit analysis

25. The DLSU Libraries’ Document Delivery/Interlibrary Loan Requests Tracking System is a product of its librarians’ attitude of making the most out of available resources. It proves that any library can adapt and get behind utilizing cloud solutions despite technological or budget obstacles. Conclusion

26. Thank you!