April 30, 2012 SLIS S-511

Group Members Katherine Harmeyer – Database Analyst Patrick Heisel – Technical Lead Stephanie Pike – Documentation Alan Rhoda – Documentation and Team Lead

Project Description Our client: SLIS Career Services Office (CSO) Focus: SLIS online jobs database ( Current database limitations: o Limited search functionality o Poor recall on keyword searches o Limited usefulness for career prep

Project Description We think we can do better. Our proposed solution requires: Additional tables for career types (positions), skill sets (skills), and SLIS courses Controlled vocabulary for positions and skills Our solution will provide: Better recall Filtering by career type (position) Career prep guidance All with only minimal additional requirements for data entry.

Database Flow Diagram The revised database will affect information flow in two ways: (1)Job entry (2)Search and browsing of job postings We’ll diagram these processes separately.

Job Entry BEFORE AFTER addition shown in grey

Search / Browse BEFORE

Search / Browse AFTER additions / changes shown in grey

Preliminary Functionality Goals Minimally, the system should enable users to: Browse all recent job listings From a single job posting, find similar job postings and identify its associated career type (position), skills associated with that career type, and which SLIS courses provide training in those skills From a career type, find all job postings of that type, associated skills, and related SLIS courses

Preliminary Functionality Goals

Full Functionality Goals Eventually, we would like a database interface that enables users to: Discover, from a SLIS course, the skills taught in that course, careers that emphasize those skills, and recent job postings related to those careers Discover, from a given skill, which SLIS courses provide training in that skill, which careers emphasize it, and recent job postings related to those careers

Full Functionality Goals

User-Centered Design Decisions Keep the appearance of the interface similar to the familiar current SLIS interface Keep data entry requirements similar to current CSO staff do not have time for elaborate data entry Hence, we only require the one additional step of associating each job posting with a position type Enhance search functionality by enabling filtering by position type Display related job, position, skill, and course information on the same page for easy cross-referencing.

Business Rules The database requires four main entities (job, position, skill, and course) and three bridge tables (job_position, position_skill, and course_skill). Each job has at least one job_position. Each job_position belongs to exactly one job. Each position can belong to any number of job_positions. Each job_position belongs to exactly one position. Each position has at least one position_skill. Each position_skill belongs to exactly one position. Each skill has at least one position_skill. Each position_skill belongs to exactly one skill. Each skill belongs to at least one course_skill. Each course_skill belongs to exactly one skill. Each course has at least one course_skill. Each course_skill belongs to exactly one course.

E-R Diagram

Full Schema

Data Definition Table

Assessment Validation of database against objectives Database allows the user to view all recent job listings Users can find similar job postings using a fuzzy search and/or position search Users can find information on generic position types Users can use the database to determine what courses to take and what skills each course develops The database centralizes the storage of SLIS job postings

Assessment Weaknesses & limitations Certain data about job postings is not stored in individual columns Skills are linked to jobs through courses through positions. International jobs are listed as “international” in the state (hold over from current SLIS database)

Assessment Possible future changes and upgrades Add columns to the job table to accommodate additional data (e.g., employer contact information) Implement columns and queries to sort jobs by type: full time, part time, internship, etc. Add field for country to address international jobs issue