Hula Kahlal- S3236327
Older women’s health
Maintainer’s Manual
Done By: Hula Kahlal
S3236327
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION 3
1.1 Content of the manual 3
1.2 The database: Purpose and content 3
1.3 Importance of maintaining the database 3
2. STRUCTURE 3
2.1 Structure of the database 3, 4
2.2 Fields: Structure, content and rules 4, 5
3. GETTING ON THE SYSTEM 5
3.1 Getting started 5, 6
How to start the database 5, 6
3.2 Records: definition, creating and editing 6, 7
Record display 6
Adding a new record 7
Editing an existing record 7
Deleting a record 7
3.3 How to search for resources 7, 8, 9, 10
Report window 8, 9
Display window 9
Edit window 10
4. TROUBLESHOOTING 10
5. INDEX 11, 12 References 13
1. INTROCTION
1.1 Content of the manual
This manual is mainly designed to assist individuals in maintaining the Older Women’s Health database. The manual contains useful information and easy steps, with diagrams on how to maintain the database and use it when searching. This manual will help the individual maintainers to get to know their responsibilities of editing, deleting, searching and displaying records and other general maintenance of the database.
1.2 The database: Purpose and content
Older Women’s Health is a database designed to store all the different topics related to the health of older women. It contains mainly two different sources: monographs and electronic resources such as websites, discussing all the different issues that may arise in relation to older women’s health. This database was mainly designed to help women who may have health concerns, or want to know more about their health, by providing them easy access to all kinds of information from different sources, covering all the different health issues, in association with getting older.
The database contains about 17 different monographs and 4 websites, discussing the main 4 subjects including Health Concerns, Menopause, Growing Older and A Healthy Lifestyle. Each subject contains about 5 to 6 different resources, with an abstract of what kind of information the resource contains.
1.3 Importance of maintaining the database
Organisations mostly depend on their database to organise, store and retrieve information when needed. This information is of a high value whether it is past or current information. Past information is usually used for evidence if any issue comes up, whereas current information is usually used on daily basis. Together, they help organisations predict its future performance and how close it is to achieving its organisational objectives. Therefore maintaining the database is extremely important to make sure that the organisation’s information and documents are always accurate. Maintaining the database includes keeping the information up-to-date all the time, making sure it’s accurate and secure from unauthoritative modifications (i.e. making sure the database is secure and only people with authority are able to access and edit/modify its contents), checking if there’s any corruption and preparing backup database in case of loss or corruption . By doing so, the data integrity is improved and the organisation’s information is accurate and reliable.
2. STRUCTURE
2.1 Structure of the database
It is essential to provide a basic idea of how this database is structured before actually getting on the system to edit and search for information. Older Women’s Health database is structured mainly according to the subject of the resource. As mentioned above, the database discusses 4 main subjects concerning older women’s health; Health Concerns, Menopause, Growing Older and A Healthy Lifestyle. Each subject contains about 5-6 resources, varying from monographs with full citation information and abstract, and websites, with their URLs. The more information he user has about the resource, the more precise the search results can be. The database‘s main features are records, fields and entries. A record is a group of related information that describes something, for example, all the related information of a book. A field is a specific class of information within a record, for example, the author of the book. Entries are all the information related to the book that is entered in their relevant field.
2.2 Fields: Structure, content and rules
As mentioned above, a field is a specific class of information within a record that describes one piece of information. The following field table makes up the entire Older Women’s Health database. The table discusses how the field is structured, and the indexing policy related to each field:
Field Name / Field Type / Indexing Rule / Field Description / Validation Rule / Indexing PolicyTitle / Text / TW / The title of the material / Field entry required / - If the materials appears to have more than one title, include them
- If materials include subtitles, include them
Creator / Text / T / The author’s last name or the organisation sponsoring the material, author’s initial / No validation required / - Include the full name of the creator and their initial
- If the author is an organisation, provide its full name
- Include all authors of the resource
- Use commas to separate the last names and the initial
- An optional field
Resource Type / Text / W / Two types of resources: monograph, electronic / Single entry only
Use validation list / - This field is compulsory
- Choose from the list provided
Resource Number / Auto Number / T / The number of the resource / Cannot be changed / Not Applicable
Subject / Text / TW / The subject that the material covers / Field entry required
Use validation list / Use minimum 1 term and maximum 3 terms
Description / Text / W / Brief description of the material / No validation required / - An abstract of the material
- Should be clear
- Should be about 100 words long
- An optional field
Year of Publication / Number / T / The year of publishing the material, if applicable / Use validation mask / Format YYYY
Validation mask used *XXX
Place of Publication / Text / TW / The place of publication / No validation rule / - An optional field
- Full entry required, i.e. no short words or abbreviations should be in use
Identifier / Code / T / The URL of the electronic source, not applicable to monographs / Unique entries only / - Use URL for websites
- Field is optional
Indexer / Text / W / The name of the indexer / Single entry only / - Include only first name
- A compulsory field
Publisher / Text / TW / The sponsor of publishing the material / No validation rule / - Full entry required, i.e. no short words or abbreviations should be in use
- If publisher and creator is one person, fill in the two fields using the same name
Field Type explains what form the field is taking, whether it was using numbers, texts, codes, dates, images, links, and so on. In this case, the main 3 types used were text, number and code.
Field rule include whether the field is term based or word based or both. This helps later on when users search for a resource, to get a precise and relevant result.
3. GETTING ON THE SYSTEM
3.1 Getting started
1. First of all, you need to know where the folder named DB/Textworks is saved, which contains everything related to the database, and then double click to open it.
2. You then need to open the icon ‘menuscreen.tbm’ that looks like the following diagram:
3. Main menu screen will open.
Main menu is the first interface that the user needs to interact with to be able to easily navigate through the entire database. The main menu defines the database, and what it is about and by click of a button, it enables the user to move across the database. Older Women’s Health menu contains a definition of what the database is about and its purpose. It then provides buttons that take the user to the actual database. The main menu will look like the following once it is opened:
The first button enables the user to search for resources, and the second button enables the user to edit or add new records.
3.2 Records: definition, creating and editing
A record is a group of related information, displayed in one screen about a particular resource. In this database, we have 21 different records, which can be displayed in a group or individually.
The following diagram illustrates how a typical record looks like in our database:
This is an example of a display record in the database. The toolbar above the record enables the individual to perform a variety of activities, such as moving across the entire record collection, adding a new record, editing a record and omitting a record. But before doing that, you will need to enter your password to ensure that records are kept private and avoid unauthoritative modifications.
The 6th icon from the left on the toolbar represents the action of adding a new record. When clicking that, a blank record will appear which looks like the diagram above; with empty fields and different toolbar, that represent different action, illustrated in the following diagram:
Alternative ways to add, edit and delete records:
To add a new record, click Records from the top toolbar > New record, a new record window will appear. Fill in the information in the relevant fields, then hit the Save button from the toolbar shown below.
To edit a record, click Search on the top toolbar > Find all records, then choose Edit Window once the search results window appears, then all records will appear. Choose the record you wish to edit, and then save changes.
To delete a record, view the record you wish to delete, then click Records from the DB/TextWorks toolbar, and click Delete Record.
3.3 How to search for resources
As seen in the main menu diagram, there is a ‘Search for resources’ button, which takes the searcher to the basic query screen. The basic query screen contains all the fields that the database is built on. To search for materials, follow the steps provided below:
- Click the ‘Search for resources’ button provided on the main menu
- You will be asked to provide your password
- The basic query screen will appear:
This is where individuals are required to provide as much information as they can to get the most relevant results. The coloured two boxes that appear on the side of the screen explain the list of options that the searcher is required to choose from to fill the Subject and the Resource type fields.
Example: when searching for a monograph, individuals will need to remember the subject that the monograph falls under and resource type (in this case, a monograph).
- The user is required to type in any piece of information they remember, in the relevant box
- Hit the Enter button, the following window will appear:
This window tells the individual how many results it came up with, which is represented as ‘Query found 5 records’.
- Then the user is required to specify how they want to display the results, from the following options:
Ø a report window that lists multiple findings in one page and in this example of a monograph search, the page will look like this:
To print a report, click the printer icon from the toolbar, as circled in red above, then choose ‘Printing report form’ then click Ok to locate the printer and click Ok to print.
Ø A Display Window which displays a single record in each screen and by clicking the Next button, it will take the user to the next record found and so on. Display Window screen in this example will look like this:
Those buttons are designed to display first record, previous record, next record and last record respectively.
Ø An Edit Window, which takes you to the record editing window, enables individuals to edit the content of the record or add a new record.
4. TROUBLESHOOTING
Þ Not finding the material you’re searching for
This can happen for a variety of reasons:
ü Typing errors
ü Not typing the information in its relevant field, e.g. typing the Title in the Subject field
ü The record you’re searching does not exist in the database
Þ Not being able to perform record activities
ü Typing errors when entering the password
ü Not being authorised to perform record activities
To get more help about the database, you can refer to the Help icon or click Help from the toolbar and choose from the options according to your needs.
5. INDEX
A
Adding a new record 7
C
Content of the manual 3
D
Deleting a record 7
Display window 9
E
Editing an existing record 7
Edit window 10
F
Fields: Structure, contents and rules 4, 5
G
Getting on the system 5
Getting started 5, 6
H
How to start the database 5, 6
I
Importance of maintaining the database 3
Introduction 3
R
Records: definition, creating and editing 6, 7
Record display 6
Report window 8, 9
S
Structure 3
Structure of the database 3, 4
T
The database: Purpose and content 3
Troubleshooting 10
References
Smith, S 2010, What Is Database Maintenance?, WiseGeek, viewed 5 June 2010, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-database-maintenance.htm
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