1. Transforming Data into Knowledge for Decision Making: Putting MS Access and Excel to Work for You Joan M. Gregory, Alice I. Weber, Allyson Mower, Julie Quilter, Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, University of Utah Managing Personnel DataInterfacing with ILS & ILL Data  Legacy Library Personnel Databases  Created from multiple MS Excel spreadsheets  Personnel archive database tracks every previous employee  Current personnel database tracks new employees with information from the University’s Personnel Action Notification (PAN) form.  Goals  Understand purpose of existing databases  Consolidate and migrate data  Improve database performance  Add fields  Fix problems: data transfer and entry form tabs  Create new queries and reports  Mission Statement The library needs to track previous employees and current employees and their emergency contact information for budgeting, statistical reports, organizational charts, phone trees, personnel lists.  Database Redesign  Forms, Queries, and Reports  Data Entry Form  Personnel Lists  Budgets  Statistics  Phone Tree  Organizational Chart  Data Migration  Map fields and tables  Separate data by tables  Manually populate some tables  Import and test  MS Access – tool to interface with Sybase/Oracle/MySQL  ODBC – Open DataBase Connectivity  Access data from any application, regardless of database  Step 1: Install and setup ODBC driver  May have been installed with your application  ODBC driver must be compatible with your database  Sample drivers: Borland’s BDE, Sybase DSEdit  Step 2: Setup ODBC Data Source  Control Panel  Administrative Tools  Data Sources (ODBC)  Choose System DNS Tab  Choose ADD  Select driver for your Data Source (e.g., Oracle, Sybase)  Enter connection information for your server  Step 3: MS Access Setup  Create a new blank MS Access Database  Import data: File  Get External Data  Link Tables  Under Files of Type  Choose ODBC Databases  On Select Data Source screen: choose Machine Data Source tab  Choose your Data Source  Login  Choose appropriate tables  MS Access creates the links Teaching Classes  MS Excel Classes  Basics  Layout, printing, and saving  Data entry and editing  Worksheet formatting  Formulas and functions  Advanced  Sorting and filtering  Importing  Charts and pivot tables  MS Access Classes  Basics  Appropriate use  Toolbars, views, data entry, and editing  Templates and wizards  Basic queries and reports  Advanced  Basic database design principles  Create sample database from scratch  Modify database objects  Import data Evaluating Subscriptions  Data, data, everywhere – but who knows what it means!  Use statistics – online and print  Subscription prices over multiple years  Sources: online catalog, vendors, publishers, campus, consortia  Goals  Understand the data  Consolidate into one database  Link related data  Compare, analyze, and make decisions  Process  Collected the data from various sources (typically spreadsheets)  Reformatted as necessary  Imported into MS Access  Created crosswalks to link data  Designed queries to identify titles to be evaluated  Exported results to MS Excel for criteria-based analysis  Established evaluation criteria/thresholds  Cost per use compared to ILL cost  Rate of price increase  High price  Publisher packages  Campus or consortia duplication  University authors/editors  Subject areas  Impact factor  MS Excel and MS Access allowed us to  Import and analyze complex data from disparate sources  Link data using crosswalks  Dynamically filter data based on criteria/thresholds  Focus on subscription evaluation instead of database design