Subject: Prototype Internet database ready to test drive

Date: Tuesday, January 8, 2002 6:30 PM

From: David A. Day <dad@email.byu.edu>

Dear Colleagues,

Warmest greetings as always, especially as we all begin a new year. I hope you are all well and enthusiastic for the year that lies ahead in 2002.

I have decided it is time to unveil the prototype database for our project. It is not fully functional. The searching aspects of the system are yet to be developed. At this point it is ready for data entry. We hope to have the search capabilities functional by the end of the month. There is also some work to be done on enhancing the graphics. That also should be complete by the end of January. We are aware of a few minor bugs and missing links. We are working daily on cleaning them up. Please give us until the end of this week before sending emails about bugs. I will send a message when I feel that the bugs we are aware of are fixed. At that point, as you find problems we definitely will want your feedback.

The URL is: riam.lib.byu.edu

To explore the system, click on “Edit the Database” from the menu bar.

The user name is: guest

The password is: guest

At the next level you can select from the file that you want to edit or create. Please explore them all.

With the exception of “creator” and “institutional creator” authority files, the records that do exist are fake. Please feel free to enter some garbage as you test the system. All of the user “guest” records can easily be isolated and deleted. In time we will assign real user IDs for people who are ready to start creating real data.

But, a word of caution!! Please to not delete any creator names or institutional creator names. We are working on revising the whole delete process to make it safer. I hope that will be in place by tomorrow. As it is now, when you click on the word “delete” the record is permanently deleted. We will fix it so that you will only be able to delete records that you created. There will also be a warning dialog box asking if you really want to delete. That should be in place sometime tomorrow.

I have a student working for me who is beginning the process of creating authority records for “creators” and “institutional creators” she is getting her information from the RLIN National Authority File.

I would like to write more to explain the system, but I just spent the afternoon at the dentist and I am too tired and sore to write much more.

Please just feel free to explore the system. I don’t think you can destroy it. Just don’t delete the authority records.

We all owe a big thank you to my student helper who did all the programming. His name is Stephen Todd. He is a freshman here at BYU. He works for student wages. So, after you have tested the system if you feel so inclined you might send him a short thank you note at: stephen_riam@yahoo.com

This is an email that he set up for himself for the project.

Enjoy the test drive!

David Day

P.S. You will notice the flags on the menu bar. I am still waiting for volunteers to translate the field labels and help screens into other languages (that’s a hint :-))