New Online Service
for Reading Rooms
A Christian Scientist
in the UK has
devised web-based software to assist Reading Room librarians throughout the
world. An IT professional by trade, Trevor Marr began his development work on
this project about 5 years ago. The endeavor has blossomed into a comprehensive
online database-driven Reading Room catalog. As an Internet-based service,
Catalog for Reading Rooms (C4RR) is universally accessible through standard web
browsers and requires no extra software installation. Compatible with PC and
MAC formats, the new service requires minimal training and virtually no
end-user maintenance.
The
software, launched in October 2005 at www.c4rr.com
includes a database of current catalog items and prices. It dynamically
calculates the local currency prices at the time the web page is displayed
using CSPS recommended retail prices (RRP) and exchange rates.
To cover development,
maintenance and hosting costs, the site is available on a subscription basis.
For a minimal monthly fee, you can access the data 24/7. You can also create,
fully maintain and email orders directly to Customer Service at CSPS. The site
currently provides for several different currencies, and any others that are
required can be quickly added once the country specific CSPS rate is known -
please email the designated rate to admin@c4rr.com
for inclusion.
Other
site features include:
- Personal profile and RR
details pages
- Set up to three local
tax/duty rates (eg. state, local and MCTD tax
rates)
- Country specific dynamic
calculators allow what-if scenarios on pricing, tax and exchange rate
variations
- Stock search by text,
catalogue number or keyword (includes full item descriptions from 2003
catalogue)
- Local tax indicator and price
breakdown
- Back order and discontinued
stock indicators
- Hierarchical categories and
'breadcrumbs' for stock navigation
- New stock items listed per
category
- Special CSPS stock offers
identified when available
- RR cost price and item weight
are displayed where known
- Personalization of color
scheme
- Multi-language – pages can be
viewed in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese or Norwegian
- Order layout, maintenance and
preview options are based on CSPS invoices and the MyOpenDoors
online order page
- Subscription pricing of
periodicals in local currency is also shown where applicable
- Specified local currency
product pricing over-rides dynamic calculations where applicable
You can review the site
by taking the visual guided or ‘ordering overview’ tours. Try it out by using
one of the six demo logins provided (USA,
Canada, Germany,
UK, NZ and Australia).
Although these demo logins only provide access to a reduced dataset of catalog
items, they will give you a good feel for site navigation, price calculation,
search features and order maintenance.
Trevor
also produces websites for branch churches and other software products. Check
out his software for Clerks and other information at www.cs4u.biz.
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8/2/06
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