Verba Collect Overview

Owned by Mary Volkmer (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Dec 26, 2019
5 min read

Verba Collect is a third party web application that interfaces with the WebPRISM TextReq program for the purpose of creating textbook requisitions, which are subsequently transmitted to a PrismCore or PRISM system. Verba Collect pulls down Terms, Courses, Departments, Sections, and Instructors from PrismCore or PRISM on a nightly basis, and makes them available on their website for the store's use.

Once available, university faculty and staff that are given access can add, edit, review, approve, and / or submit their textbook requisitions online, thereby saving bookstore staff time and energy in entering those requests by hand. Those online requests are then transmitted to PrismCore or PRISM for final bookstore editing and approval.

Users granted access to the store’s Verba Collect site are given user permissions of "Submitter", "Reviewer", or "Approver" permission for a course or for a department. These permissions persist across all terms that have those course or departments in them.

  1. A "Submitter" can add books to a textbook requisition and can submit that requisition for review (Status: Submitted).

  1. A "Reviewer" can view the requisition and submit it for approval (Status: Reviewed).

  1. An "Approver" can view the requisition, approve it, and can push the requisition to PrismCore or PRISM (Status: Approved).

The user will log in to the Verba Collect website, and then choose their desired term from the dropdown list in the upper right hand of the page.

Selecting a term will cause the page to update with a list of courses for the term, and then a course can be selected by the user.

 

If the user has permissions to the department, then they can view the requisition. If the term is set to "editable" and their section is not already in an "Approved" state, then user can start adding books to the requisition.

 

If Verba has the book's information, then entering an ISBN will cause the "Title", "Author", and "Publisher", "Pub. Year", "Edition", "Editor", "Translator", and "WWW Links" to auto-populate. 

If Verba doesn't have the book's information then the user is required to at least fill in the "Title, "Author", and "Publisher" for the book. The book can then be added to the Book List. Once all books have been added to the list, then the approval process can begin by pressing the "Approve Adoption", "Review Adoption", or "Approve Adoption" button at the top of the page, depending on the user's privilege level for the department.

 

 

An admin account can work the requisition in any state, and can push the requisition to PRISM or PrismCore. When a requisition is "pushed", it is sent to the WebPRISM TextReq system, and the requisition will flow to PRISM or PrismCore Course Requests.

From there, users will need to verify the course requests information, if needed, and approve the course request. This is done using a hammer option in the Course Request module of PrismCore, or through an option at the PRISM green select screen in Course Requests.

Verba – User Settings Basics

Basic user setup is completed by Verba support before the website goes live. Verba support enters the reviewers with default permissions, and then bookstore employees are able to set up individual users with custom email settings, if needed. Part of the final training for bookstore staff is how to edit these custom settings. The below information is merely to be used as a reference to understanding Verba user permissions.

·       If term is uneditable: Submitters and reviewers are unable to affect any changes to any classes. Approvers are still able to edit classes.

·       If term is editable: The permissions below apply.

  • Submitters can:

  • Self-assign to incomplete classes (only if self-assignment is turned on.)

  • Add materials to and submit incomplete classes.

  • Revert a submitted section to incomplete and edit the class again.

  • Request permission to edit a reviewed course.

  • Request permissions to edit an approved course.

  • Reviewers can:

  • Self-assign to incomplete classes (only if self-assignment is turned on; used by reviewers that need to add materials to cross-listed courses. For instance, one may be the accounting admin, but needs to add books to one management course).

  • Add materials to and submit incomplete classes (skips the submitted stage, goes straight to reviewed).

  • Edit submitted classes.

  • Mark submitted classes as reviewed.

  • Revert reviewed classes to submitted and edit the adopted materials.

  • Revert reviewed classes to incomplete (different action, since this will also email the professor).

  • Request permission to edit approved classes.

  • Add new classes to a term (if this setting is turned on).

  • Add professor to classes for editing.

  • Other tasks, such as exporting reports.

Support Only – Verba Collect Setup Information

Programming notes that installation and setup for Verba Collect is similar to other Verba products, in that much of the work is done on the Verba and programming side.

  1. First, if called about Verba Collect, request that the customer contact Verba in order to sign contracts, and prepare to begin the interface.

  1. Support should write up an ITG to the Internet Services programming department to set up Verba; the ITG must include the store's already existing Site ID.

a.     This step includes giving the Verba API access to the store’s system via the Site ID.

  1. The store must have TextReq enabled. If not, then the Internet Services programmers will have to add and enable TextReq for the store, in order to allow the API access.

  1. Internet Services will give Verba API access to the store.

  1. Verba must be provided with the Store's Name and Site ID.