Re: Gen: Class lists/Circ software

[Melissa Davis <mbdavis@TENET.EDU>]

On Sat, 31 Aug 1996, Ellen Dibble wrote:
> Lm-netters,  Regarding the discussion of getting class lists for library
> circulation, I wonder how many of you use circ software that can import
> database records.  If the office system can print the lists, they should be
[snip]
> records in each year.   Does anyone have circ software that imports student
> data without typing in all that information?  Seems if the school

I have quite a bit of experience with dBase 3+ programming so am aware of
the possibilities here, but my aide still enters our new 6th graders by hand
each year. It just takes less of _my_ time. If I didn't have an aide I
would probably work out the process once, then document the heck out of
it so I could remember how to do it again the following years.

We use Winnebago and purchased (about 5 years ago) their "patron entry"
program that is designed to run outside the Winnebago system. (Basically
you can put it on any computer whether it also has the Winn program or
not.) When you run this program to enter patrons it writes what appears
to be a straight ASCII text file that is then imported into Winnebago.

Assuming that you can control the order in which the data fields are
written out by the secretary's program (and that may be a really big IF
depending on the software involved) then it should be possible to put it
in the same order (and include only the fields that Winnebago expects).
You would also have to be sure that the field lengths are either the same
or truncated automatically in the 'write out' process.

Another thing to watch our for is how the 2 programs handle names.
Winnebago uses 2 separate fields (1 for first and 1 for last names). If
the secretary's program uses only 1 field then you'll have to find a way
to separate it into the 2 that Winnegabo expects.

When our counselor's offices used dBase for their student data, I did
import the data from it. Now that they have moved to another program that
doesn't allow (as far as we can tell) as much local manipulation, it's
back to typing them in.
        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        Melissa Davis                   Librarian
        Splendora Middle School         Splendora I.S.D.
        P O Box 168                     Splendora, TX 77372
        Internet: mbdavis@tenet.edu     PHONE: (713)689-2853
        CompuServe: 75146,771           FAX: (713)689-8702
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