The Registrar’s office is finishing a test-drive of a new online transcript-request system expected to be ready by the beginning of February, which will eliminate students’ need to trek to 20 Garden St. in order to obtain an official copy of their grades.

The new system will be linked to the existing Registrar’s Office website and will make it possible to create and save an online profile through which students will be able to request transcript copies. Once the processing fee has been paid by credit card, the student’s transcript will be available online.

“It is simply another way that students could opt to order transcripts,” said Barry S. Kane, registrar of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “It doesn’t change the current universe, just adds another level.”

When Kane introduced a similar online system at Yale University, where he served as registrar before coming to Harvard, a range of technical flaws made the system notoriously difficult to use. But Kane said he did not anticipate similar problems with the new Harvard system.

“In the scheme of electronic applications, it was one of the easier ones to develop,” he said.

According to many students, such a system is long overdue. When Eric I. Kouskalis ’07 tried to obtain a transcript for applications to summer schools while away for a semester in Namibia, he encountered what he called a “month-long ordeal.”

“I had [a friend] print out my transcript request and he had to go to the registrar and basically beg them to accept it,” said Kouskalis. “I even had to take a digital photo of my signature and paste it onto the form.”

If an online system had been in place, he said, the entire process would have taken just a few minutes.

Not everyone, however, has had problems with the existing system. Joseph P. Fishman ’05, who applied to several fellowships and graduate schools this year, took care to plan in advance.

“I just ordered a half-dozen transcripts in one shot. That made things much simpler, just one trip to the registrar instead of many,” he said. “I think the old system is much less of a hassle for seniors who already know that they’ll need a lot of transcripts, rather than for underclassmen who might need to make separate trips as situations come up.”

Kane emphasized the importance of the new system to his office, and says he expects the project to have a strong effect on student satisfaction.

“When I arrived at Harvard shortly over a year ago, there were many needs, involving the development of electronic applications,” he said. “An application to allow students the ability to request their transcripts electronically would respond to a very large unmet need.”

Even students who have been managing so far say the new system will be a welcome resource.

“I don’t see how having the option to access official transcripts more easily could ever be a bad thing,” Fishman said.