Pre-Book™ Details

Pre-Book enables your patrons to serve themselves

Pre-Book enables patrons to book a time on a DiscoverStation or a PC for a particular date and time at any branch using any web browser. From their personal Pre-Book page, patrons can view their own usage statistics, including time used and available, make and cancel reservations, set up e-mail reminders of their reservations, and check their account status. Pre-Book can also be configured to allow patrons to log in and use any station not currently booked, maximizing the usage of your public computers.

The web-based Pre-Book interface provides helpful instructions and FAQs to guide patrons through the reservation system. The Pre-Book patron interface is available on all platforms including Windows, Macintosh and Linux, using common browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, Opera, and Mozilla, and many mobile web browsers.

Pre-Book reduces the booking time-sheet management burden for library staff

Using a single web-based portal, librarians can view and manage their computer reservations from anywhere in the library. Librarians can: add, edit, view, or delete reservations for any patron by name or bar code; view individual bookings in detail; adjust patron booking and account information; and reserve computer time for holidays, maintenance, special groups and events.

Customizable and comprehensive computer reservation options for administrators

Pre-Book is completely customizable by library administrators. From a simple control panel, administrators can set the hours of availability at each branch; configure when bookings can be made, the number of bookings available to patrons and for how long, set holiday hours, and set penalties for unclaimed reservations. Administrators can also customize the appearance and branding of the Pre-Book application.

At the administrators' option, Pre-Book automatically logs all unclaimed bookings, and opens unclaimed computers for general use after a configurable grace period. A patron who misses many bookings in a configurable time period may be prevented from making additional bookings for a specified period, but may still log in to unbooked stations.

Pre-Book also offers usage reports, both for computers and users, to allow administrators to plan for future computer requirements.

The following Pre-Book parameters are configurable:

• Number of days for reservation prior to use
• Minimum amount of time before a reservation can be made before a station
• Maximum number of sessions patrons have per day
• Maximum amount of time per session
• Maximum amount of time per day
• Maximum number of reservations allowed to be made
• Walk-up use for unbooked stations
• Allowing a session to run/continue when the daily maximum was exceeded on un-booked stations
• Allowing patrons to continue to use stations if they are unbooked.
• Grace period for reservation recover after accidential log-off
• Time penalty for no show
• Automatic logout after idle period.

Contact your Userful representative today to learn how Pre-Book can streamline your public computer reservation system.