24:2 (2009:05) Committee Annual Report: D&D

May 27, 2009 at 12:42 pm | Posted in Database & Directory | Leave a comment

DATABASE & DIRECTORY COMMITTEE
4/2009, revised 6/2009

Lisa Blackwell (Nationwide Children’s Hospital), 07/09 and  Bob Persing (University of Pennsylvania), 07/10, co-chairs

Members: Alice Bright (Carnegie Mellon University), 07/10, Heather Cannon (Loyola Health Sciences Library), 07/09, Ann Ercelawn (Vanderbilt University), 07/09, Cecilia Genereux (University of Minnesota), 07/10, Julie Kane (Sweet Briar College), 07/09, Tzu Jing Kao (University of Connecticut), 07/10, Greg Matthews (Washington State University), 07/09, Marit Taylor (University of Colorado, Denver) 07/09, Suzanne Thomas (University of Pittsburgh), 07/09
Board liaison:  Peter Whiting

ACTIVITIES
The months of January, February and March were primarily spent processing payments and troubleshooting inquiries from members as they struggle to adjust to the new rolling membership cycle.  January-April memberships processed: 281 (83 are new members.) With the opening of conference registration we have found that the registration system and the membership directory records don’t work together smoothly.  Members wishing to renew while registering for the conference are forced to enter as new members. This has resulted in quite a few duplicate member records which the committee then must consolidate.  The registrar, treasurer and D&D continue to work closely together to track payments in what frequently feels like separate accounting systems.  We hope to simplify the working procedures before the 2010 conference cycle begins and this may require additional programming adjustments in the database payment system.

Routine Database & Directory Committee working procedures are still under development.  The anticipated completion of these documents and posting to the committee Web space is prior to the conference.  The chairs are currently collaborating on finalizing the committee working activities into a standardized routine.

MEMBERSHIP
What follows is a breakout of various reports run through the ArcStone system. It is hoped that they provide a valuable snapshot of our membership demographics and statistics. It is possible to run additional various types of reports on request. If a requested report is not able to be run, we can ask ArcStone to assist. Some reports would require additional programming by ArcStone.  A list of programming enhancements that would be useful is included at the end of this report.

The breakout of member state affiliations is listed on the next page of this report. Other special reports will be generated by the committee upon request.

REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL DATABASE PROGRAMMING: WISH LIST

• Ability to generate spreadsheets from all record reports.
• Tabulated listing of dues payments, invoices, etc.
• Renaming of specific database field labels. This requires programming as the names themselves are hard-coded into the build. Some field labels are unnecessary and some are misleading.  For example, in the reports section of the database, “Date renewed between” actually translates to “Date expected to renew between”. Once a renewal has occurred the date of renewal is only listed as the payment date in the member dues record.

CONTINUING ACTION ITEMS

• Document committee procedures and post to committee space.
• Create documentation and saved search strategies for standard reports.
• Enter standardized data into institutional records.
• Work with A&R to enter previous year’s award winners.

Submitted by Lisa Blackwell and Bob Persing
Co-chairs, Database & Directory Committee