DATABASE LIBRARY SYSTEM

Database Library System

Database Library System

Introduction

The creation of means of access to large bodies of digitized information has rightly been viewed in our society as a major development in the history of human knowledge use. The elimination or reduction of prior constraints of distance, fragility of resources, or limited physical access to resources promises a freedom and flexibility in information access unprecedented in human history. However, we have a way to go yet in creating systems that are both easy to use and truly effective in retrieval.

In the 1970s the early days of mounting databases such as online catalogs and abstracting and indexing services for searching purposes developers were generally happy to get a database functioning in any reasonable way possible. Information systems often consisted of a body of information, originally selected and indexed for the paper environment, being mounted for electronic access with a search engine and system front-end designed entirely independently from the body of information being retrieved. The resulting systems were often crude, but faster than the paper alternatives, and so represented an important step forward (Miller, 2004 25). Most computing in those days was directed toward running large numbers of operations on relatively small bodies of information. Appropriate technology and software were slow to develop where few operations and very large bodies of textual information were concerned.

Deep expertises are developing in each of the design layers. In practice, that means that it is harder and harder for any one person to have sufficient knowledge of all the design layers to see the entire forest for the trees (Zhu, 2001 69-90). That, in turn, means that systems are prone to being designed with many different objectives in mind and with little understanding between the several groups of professionals addressing the design.

Background: Information System Design Models

Researchers and system developers have used a variety of sorts of models to aid in the process of designing and developing information systems. Here, some of the types are described and contrasted with the approach to be taken in the UoG Model.

In automated information systems, there are three major components that appear in many different forms and permutations: (1) the computer/network system, i.e., the technical infrastructure, (2) the information or “content” that is supported and transmitted by the system, and (3) the user and his/her interaction with the system. Many models of automated systems emphasize the technical infrastructure necessary to make the system work (Efthimiadis, 2006 121-187). For example, the seven-layer Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model was designed to clarify relationships and support standards for inter-networking between computer systems.

The UoG Model describes the several design layers that have to be taken into account in the process of developing and implementing an information system in an automated environment. Starting with the interface, imagine turning that interface on its side and pulling it apart, like an accordion, to reveal the several design layers backing that interface and culminating in the interface. Those dovetailing layers will appear as in ...