School of Information Management & Systems. Spring 2001.
245 Organization of Information in Collections. M. Buckland.

Assignment 10: Organize Access to an Unusual Collection.
Draft. Deadlines, subject to revision, March 12, March 19, April 2, April 9.

Create an online database of representations of unusual objects. The objective is to obtain first-hand experience in designing a datastructure, assigning metadata values, designing standardized queries, preparing documentation, and writing a user's manual. Use Microsoft Access.

Choose a collection of phenomena to be described: things, persons, events, ideas,... but not texts or publications. Fifteen or twenty items. Past examples include: My son Timmy's stuffed animals; Places I like to hang out; My relatives; The contents of my frig; Contents of my aunts apartment in Cairo; Medieval Irish heroines; Campsites of Spanish explorers; Pens and pencils; Vacation photos; Wines; Types of Yoga, etc. Choice is subject to instructor's approval.

Design an object - attribute - value record structure and specify for each attribute (field) whether the value can be duplicated in multiple records and the default sort (filing) order. Minimum requirements: An ID field as unique numerical identifier; a personal name field, a date field, a binary (Yes/No) field, and a field for narrative text (description, explanation, note). One or more fields should be suitable for a controlled vocabulary (thesaurus).

10A: An explanation of the data structure and a sample Record is   due March 12 .

10B: Create and use a single Table. (Use of two or more tables is acceptable but not required.)
Printout of table(s) is   due March 19.

10C: Create three queries using Design Query. Create a concise User's Manual that includes sufficient instructions for a do-it-yourself demo that illustrates the richness of your data, the power of the query language, and your own ingenuity in the design of an easy-to-use, user-friendly system. The demo should include three worked examples using the three queries that you have created and the creation of a new search using design query. Assume that users will be familiar only with basic word-processing and web-surfing and that the Access Help screens and wizards are not working. Manual and copy of the database   due April 2 .

10D: Design a web page interface to the database. (Building a working interface is not required.)   Due April 9.