Library Web Chic

Sometimes you just don’t know about a new technology until you see it in action. In February, Google announced a new feature in Google Spreadsheet which allowed you share a spreadsheet by creating a form into which data could be entered into the spreadsheet. This didn’t hit my radar until very recently when a conference I’m speaking at in the fall decided to collect their speaker information using this method.

Since then I’ve been thinking about all the email forms we have on the library website and how ineffective they are. Most of them have lots of data that gets transmitted via email and then has to be rekeyed for statistical or other purposes. Could Google Docs help with this? Maybe, but I need to do some experimentation. The key issue for me isn’t necessarily: “can we collect the data”? Its “can we get the data back out in an easy efficient programmatic way?” I hit on the Google Spreadsheets Data API but need to spend some time researching stuff.

All of this makes me wonder if I need to push for my institution to get serious about Google Apps for Education. Otherwise, we will be using “personal” accounts to make this happen.