world language laboratory

keeping track of STUFF

Filed Under Tools

Another one of the challenges in a department that relies on a lot of videos, physical objects, electronic peripherals like the Flip cameras, and books is how to keep track of it all, not lose it, and know where to go to find it fast. With a little help from my friends, we’ve got a pretty nifty solution to this using Google forms.

You can see the form I created here. What’s cool about it, is that we have a little JavaScript parsing the data from the Google spreadsheet that takes only the latest entry about any given item, so when we click on the “CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT WHO HAS WHAT” link, you see exactly who has what at their desk.

This makes it possible for teachers to hand off items to each other without going through some centralized librarian (me) and allows everybody to see, at a glance, where everything is. It’s also a way of holding people accountable for what they have checked out. And I can see a history of any item on the Google spreadsheet.

Of course, there are a few weaknesses.

As you can see, this form is currently public and there’s no identification or LDAP authentication like there is with our reservation calendar, so don’t go checking out things that aren’t yours ;-). I could password protect this page on Wikispaces if I needed to, but for now I’ll let it be.

The second slight issue is that teachers can’t reserve peripherals, videos, etc. in advance like they do with reserving space in the lab. For the most part, this won’t be an issue because we don’t think that far in advance here {forced smile}. I’ll be telling teachers that need equipment for any future projects to go ahead and check it out in advance with a note as to when they’ll actually be using it. That way a teacher who needs a Flip camera, say, for a class period, can simply go to the “possessor” and the possessor can check it out on to her colleague and then get it right back. Or so we hope.

The third problem is the human problem. This system still relies on teachers using it when they borrow stuff from the equipment closet or pass things on to their colleagues. And no, we don’t have gadgettrak yet for little things like keys, boxes, cables, and cameras. BUT WHEN WE DO, you can bet I’ll be standing in line.

Anyway, I’m formally introducing this system next Tuesday at our Faculty Development meeting. I’ll let you know in a few months how this goes. Also, we’ll be making a few tweaks-this is still in alpha- but once I have a final version I should be able to make the code available to other tech coordinators out there who are also juggling many small electronic thingy-boppers.