At my library, I’ve been asked recently to look into ways that we might create an e-resource ticketing system. The main goal is to have a system that makes it easy for librarians to report a problem and to check the status of efforts to fix the problem.

Here is a list of some of the key functions and features that I’ve come up with so far:

• librarians can report a problem with an e-resource
  • a web form would be the main way to enter requests
  • email submission would be a useful though not essential additional way to report
• librarians can browse previously reported problems to see if the one they want to report has already been reported
  • filtering and sorting options would be preferable
• librarians can check status of previously reported problems
• if a login system is required for the librarians submitting or browsing tickets, it should allow us to hook up with Active Directory (I don’t want anyone to have to remember any additional user name/password combos)
• my supervisor, the head of collection management, should be able to assign tickets to me or others as needed
• those of us handling tickets should be able to add data to an additional field if initial troubleshooting reveals that the problem is related to a different e-resource or system (for example, a report may come in that we can’t access a particular journal, but the problem may actually turn out to be one with SFX and not the database where the journal is found)
• those of us handling tickets should be able to update the status of the tickets and to add notes about how the resolution is progressing

This system is meant to be for internal use only and wouldn’t be made visible to our public. It’s got to be web-based, as we don’t want to be messing around with installing software. I’m also hoping that we can find a solution that is free. It doesn’t have to be a really fancy or slick system. Here are some of the options I’m thinking about:

• Gimlet
• LibAnalytics
• Freshdesk
  • Librarian David Lee King recently mentioned this one among others in a blog post about tools that he’s considering for a ticketing system
• Zoho
  • Librarians from Dominican University did a presentation at ERL in 2011 about how they did this with a Zoho App they created that anyone can install and adapt in Zoho
• KACE
  • the IT unit on campus uses KACE already for its ticketing system; maybe we can get set up on it
• Google Spreadsheet with a web form for intake
• Google Fusion Tables with a web form for intake

After all this fuss, I may end up going with a boring but serviceable Google Spreadsheet/web form combination, as I can get it up and running for free in about 15 minutes. What free systems or tool would you recommend? If anyone has screenshots or a public view of some part of the system they use, I’d love to check them out.