Information Science and Technology

Database Project

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As part of a GLIS independent study project, one student has proposed the establishment of a database to house the annotations submitted by Dr. Carsonís LSC 508 students. Any GLIS student researching current topics in Library Science could use this database as a resource tool. It could also be used by faculty as a readily accessible source of media for use in lectures. The maintenance of the website itself would also serve to fulfill an independent project for one student per semester. The database would be accessible via the URI library website and would be searchable via subject keyword(s), author or journal title.

As established by the LSC 508 syllabus, each annotation must pertain to a chosen subject as indicated by Dr. Carson and must have been written within the past 5 years. The annotation itself can be no longer than 50 words and include a citation written in ALA format. The following sample annotation displays the proper layout:

Thornton, G. (2000). Impact of electronic resources on collection development, the roles of librarians, and library consortia. Library Trends, 48(4), 842-854.

Analyzes the effect of the Internet on collection development. Investigates how this will influence the librarianís roll. Claims that this shift in resources will fade the autonomy of the local library. Explores how licensed materials change the relationship between the library and information made available.

Field Name	Size (bytes)	Format	Description
ID Number	5	AutoNumber	Primary Key that IDs record
Author's Last Name	15	Text	Last name of author
Author's F/M Initial	5	Text	First and/or middle initial
Additional Authors	50	Text	Up to 4 additional authors
Publishing Year	6	Number	Year only
Article Title	248	Text	Full title of article
Journal Title	100	Text	Title of Journal
Volume	8	Text	Some articles extend through 2 volumes
Issue	4	Text	Issue number of journal
Pages	9	Text	First through last page that article appears on
Annotation Text	500	Memo	50 words or less

With every passing semester, this database's value will increase and will also become more complex, requiring regular maintenance. Each student will be responsible for entering his or her own annotations into the database. Once the annotation is submitted, it will become a read only record and the administrator will be the sole user with the ability to amend the annotation. Each user of the database will have obtained a unique password in order to access the records. The database administrator would be a grad student who takes on the responsibility of maintaining the site as part of his or her independent study project. The duration of this duty will last one semester with responsibilities including periodically backing up the database, assisting users with password or navigational issues, and expunging outdated articles.

The software used to create the actual database was Microsoft Access 2000. A short tutorial is recommended for those who have never used this particular software program, as it is not easily self-taught. Once the user has learned the basics of the program, however, it is easy to explore its capabilities and see the programs benefits and the convenience it provides. When attempting to print individual records of the database, one should note the printer orientation in the page setup so that the forms print out correctly. It may be necessary to change the format to ělandscapeî in order for the form to fit on the page. The preliminary steps of this database were implemented on a Compaq PC with Intel that contains 40 GB of hardrive. With a capacity of 40 GB, there should be ample enough room to house five years worth of annotations in the database.

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