ReadingRecord Setup Form Instructions

The following document is designed to help you fill out the ReadingRecord Setup Forms required to get your ReadingRecord site up and running. It is best read along with the field descriptions and options document to help explain the various fields and options. It may also be helpful to experiment with the demo sites.

To quote Douglas Adams:

Although the form does ask for quite a bit of information, it is safe to ignore the tabs for fields you aren't using. For example: if you aren't using the age field, simply leave the drop-down field on tab 3 set to “no” and ignore tab 9.

Try to fill out the form as completely & accurately as possible, but don't worry about getting everything perfect. ReadingRecord is flexible enough that making changes to your setup is generally quite easy.

Many fields in ReadingRecord are optional, and there are three types: drop-down lists, text boxes and checkboxes:

• When used, drop-down fields are always required (a value from the drop-down list must be selected):
  • If you do not wish to use the field, simply leave the value on the setup form set to “No”.
  • If you wish to use the field:
    • Change the value on the setup form to “Yes”.
    • Provide a custom label (optional).
    • Fill out the corresponding tab to populate the drop-down list. (Eg: if you are using the city field, fill out tab 11)

• When used, text boxes may be optional or required:
  • If you do not wish to use the field, simply leave the value on the setup form set to “No”.
  • If you wish to use the field it can be optional (the field can be left blank) or required (the field must be filled in):
    • To make the field optional, change the value on the setup form to “Yes (optional)”.
    • To make the field required, change the value on the setup form to “Yes (required)”.
    • Provide a custom label (optional).

• When used, checkboxes may be optional or required:
  • If you do not wish to use the field, simply leave the value on the setup form set to “no”.
  • If you wish to use the checkbox it can be optional (the box can be left unchecked) or required (the box must be checked):
    • To make the optional, change the value on the setup form to “Yes (optional)”.
    • To make the field required, change the value on the setup form to “Yes (required)”.
    • Provide a custom label (optional).
    • Provide additional information to the right of the checkbox (optional).
    • Provide a custom error message.

Feel free to play with the demo sites to help you get a feel for what ReadingRecord can do and how you might want to configure your site.

There's no substitute for seeing your site with your options and your data. In most cases you'll have a chance to test your site before self-registration begins. ReadingRecord is flexible enough that most changes can be requested via e-mail. (Complex changes may require you to refill out some of the setup form tabs.)

To save yourself (and me) some time, indicate when you want to use the same drop-down list for multiple programs. For example: You have 3 programs (kids, teens & adults) which all use the same drop-down list for the city field.

• Indicate that the city field should be used by selecting “yes” on tab 3 (all copies of the setup form).
• If desired, customize the field label, also on tab 3 (all copies of the setup form).
• Fill out tab 11 (cities) on the kids copy of the setup form.
• Say “use the drop-down list from the kids form” on the teen & adult program setup form.

Since field order, field labels and drop-down list can be customized, use fields to collect any information you'd like:

• The reader phone number field is required, but most small children don't have phones. To help alleviate confusion when registering for the toddlers program, move the reader phone field to the guardian information section & change the label.
• Instead of separate fields for city and zipcode, change the label of the city field to “City + Zip” and collect both with one field.
• Use the public checkbox to ask readers if this is their first time participating in summer reading.
• Use the public drop-down to ask readers if they have friended the library on social media: “yes”, “no”, “don't use social media”.
• Use the public textbox to ask patrons to describe the library in one word.
• Use the staff checkbox to indicate if staff has handed out storytime information.
• Use the staff drop-down to indicate if the patron has mismatched socks. (Not sure why you'd want to collect this information! )

Send questions to the ReadingRecord Google Group or e-mail me directly.

Have I mentioned that ReadingRecord is designed with flexibility in mind? Making changes prior to (and even after) self-registration begins is generally possible, and in most cases, easy. Send me an e-mail with the changes you'd like and I will let you know when they've been made. (In some cases it may be necessary for you to refill out one or more tabs.)

This tab gathers information about the library as a whole.

Type the name of your library in the box. This information is displayed in the browser's title bar.

Add the name, phone & e-mail address of staff who will be the primary contact(s) for your library. This information is used for support purposes (eg: questions about the form, site testing e-mail, etc.). It is NOT available in ReadingRecord or published to the ReadingRecord Wiki.

Choose a unique URL prefix for your site. (You will be notified if your prefix is already in use.) It will be used for both patron self-registration and access to the staff module. Sites end in “readingrecord.net”. For example, the demo site uses the prefix “demo” and is hosted on the readingrecord.net server, so the URLs are:

• demo.readingrecord.net (patron self-registration)
• demo.readingrecord.net/staff (staff module)

Please enter your library's timezone. This ensures that the timestamp used in various places (registration added, registration updated, level completed, etc.) display correctly for your timezone.

Please list usernames & passwords for access to the staff module. You can have several user accounts if desired, please indicate if the user should have access to reports. For example, you might have a staff account with access to reports and a volunteer account without access to reports. Please don’t use a valuable password as it will be visible to ReadingRecord support staff.

Please indicate if patrons should be allowed to register for multiple programs. In most cases this is not desirable, but there may be exceptions. For example:

• A children's program for ages 0-14 and a tweens program for ages 13-16 where you allow patrons to register for one or both programs.
• A children's program for ages 0-12, a teens program for ages 13-17, an adults program for ages 18 & up and an “all ages” program. You may want to allow patrons to register for their age group and the “all ages” program.

Please provide a library logo or banner attached as a separate file. This could be text with program information like start/end dates and a small library logo. The recommended size is 698px wide x 112px tall. If you don’t have a logo or banner, we will provide generic graphics for you.

This tab gathers information about the program.

Add a short program name. This text will be displayed on the self-registration pages and in various places in the staff module.

Indicate the date the program starts. This can be different than the self-registration start date and is often when patrons can begin submitting logs.

Indicate the date the program ends. This is generally later then the self-registration end date.

Indicate the date patrons should be able to register themselves. Note: This does not affect access to the staff module.

Indicate the date patrons should no longer be able to register themselves. Note: This does not affect access to the staff module.

Indicate the program's age or grade range. For example:

• Ages 1-5
• Grades 7-9
• All Ages

Add a longer description of the program. This text will be displayed on the self-registration index page. It could include general information about the program, such as start/end dates, program ages, etc.

OPTIONAL: Add a customized “registration successful” message. This text will be displayed after a successful self-registration.

This tab gathers information about which reader information fields should be used, customized labels and other options. For details please see the field descriptions and options document.

This tab gathers information about which guardian information fields should be used, customized labels and other options. For details please see the field descriptions and options document.

This tab gathers information about which additional reader information fields should be used, customized labels and other options. For details please see the field descriptions and options document.

This tab gathers information about which additional reader information fields should be used, customized labels and other options. Note: These fields appear on the staff add/update pages only. For details please see the field descriptions and options document.

This tab specifies a custom field order. The default order is:

• Form header
• Personal info header
• Reader home library
• Reader first name
• Reader last name
• Reader phone
• Reader age
• Reader birth date
• Reader gender
• Reader city
• Reader zipcode
• Reader e-mail
• Reader barcode
• School info header
• Reader grade
• Reader school
• Guardian info header
• Guardian first name
• Guardian last name
• Guardian phone
• Guardian e-mail
• Guardian barcode
• Consent checkbox
• Registration validated checkbox (staff pages only)

The following custom fields are also available, in general you will need to specify where they should appear:

• Public checkbox
• Public drop-down
• Public text box
• Staff checkbox (staff pages only)
• Staff drop-down (staff pages only)
• Staff text box (staff pages only)

When using the library field, enter libraries in the order you wish them to be displayed in the drop-down list.

When using the age field, enter ages in the order you wish them to be displayed in the drop-down list.

When using the gender field, enter genders in the order you wish them to be displayed in the drop-down list.

When using the city field, enter cities in the order you wish them to be displayed in the drop-down list.

When using the zipcode field, enter zipcodes in the order you wish them to be displayed in the drop-down list.

When using the grade field, enter grades in the order you wish them to be displayed in the drop-down list.

When using the school field, enter schools in the order you wish them to be displayed in the drop-down list.

When using the public drop-down field, enter items in the order you wish them to be displayed in the drop-down list.

When using the staff drop-down field, enter items in the order you wish them to be displayed in the drop-down list.

List reading levels and optionally prize / staff instructions on this tab OR a combination of level and drop-down list items to indicate what prize was chosen or task was completed. A “level” can be just about anything you can think of, some examples include:

• Books read
• Hours read
• Pages read
• Tasks to complete
• Regular level
• Bonus level
• Prize level