[WEB4LIB] Community Information Database

[TMGB]

Zope ( http://www.zope.org/ ) with a PostgreSQL Database (
http://www.postgresql.org/ ) can do all of this for you.  A page I threw
together real quick was a search page for NetLibrary holdings.  I forget
how many records there are but it is over 10,000 but only 8 fields.
http://linux.library.appstate.edu:8080/Zope_Server/reference/nclive/netlibrary/

NCLIVE (http://www.nclive.org/ ) had an excel spreadsheet of the data
and I saved it as a delimited text file then read it into a PostgreSQL
database. The searches are regular expression searches matching
lowercase input to lowercase words and parts of words in the database,
that is I use the database function tolower() on both search word and
ignore case on words in the database.  This is the source code for the
url above but its not what you see when you view the source from your
browser:

<dtml-var standard_html_header>
<h2>Search the NetLibrary holdings</h2>
<p>
<dtml-var lookup_title_search>
<dtml-var lookup_author_search>
<dtml-var lookup_publisher_search>
<dtml-var lookup_lcc_search>
<dtml-var lookup_dewey_search>
<dtml-var lookup_lcsh_search>
</p>
<dtml-var standard_html_footer>

This is the sql for author search:
select *
from netlib
where (lower(authors)~*'<dtml-var search_term>')
order by recnum


You can have zope generate a search page and a report page from any sql
and then use as is, edit those pages, or copy what you want to a page
with better visual appeal.  The URL above is just calling each of the
individual default search pages and loading it into one page.  The only
questionable part is your statistics.  You would have to create a count
field in the database and use sql to generate a report.  Zope saves all
information to one file even when you upload files to zope for others to
download (bad design but I'm sure they had their reasons).

Zope and Postgre are both object oriented, and they are both free.  Zope
runs on many platforms, I prefer Linux.


Thomas


"Conkas, Michelle" wrote:
> 
> Hello, I hope this is an appropriate topic for this list.
> 
> At Vaughan Public Libraries we are looking into creating a Community
> Information Database (listing addresses, contact details, and a summary of
> community groups in the area) to be hosted on our web page. I have been
> looking at various similar projects already on the web, and have noticed
> they vary hugely in quality and content. Some sites are just HTML pages,
> which I imagine would be difficult and time consuming to update regularly.
> 
> Since we want to make this a long-term project that is easily updated, I was
> thinking more along the lines of buying database software that has the
> following features:
>         * has a web interface
>         * holds up to 2000 records
>         * has an online form that when completed e-mails to a staff member
> for checking before being able to be entered directly into the database
>         * has the ability to print the records for posting to community
> groups on an annual basis (this would mean printing out the address, current
> details and space for changes to these details)
>         * the ability to search the database by keyword (or other fields) as
> well as browse alphabetically
>         * tracks statistics of usage
> 
> If anyone has had experience in dealing with this kind of project, I would
> appreciate any information and experience you may have gained.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Michelle Conkas
> CAP Coordinator
> Vaughan Public Libraries

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Thomas McMillan Grant Bennett      Appalachian State University
Computer Consultant III            University Library
bennettt at am.appstate.edu          
http://www.library.appstate.edu/webmaster/
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