Mindex Newsletter

• Looking Ahead

• Recent Events

• Recent Projects

• Scheduled Training

• Upcoming Conferences

• New Inmagic Users

• Profile: Glynis Steer

• New Services

• Tricks and Tips

• Q & A

Contact us

Cilliers Odendaal, the Mindex manager.

Cilliers is also our IT and Web guru.

Looking Ahead

Welcome to the first quarterly newsletter for 2018.

We received a fantastic response to our October 2017 issue that

featured our User Day events in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape

Town. Thank you for your positive feedback! Please do drop us a

line if there is a topic that you would like us to cover in a future

newsletter.

In this newsletter, we look at the upcoming events and training

for this year.

Remember that you can simply click on our email link under

Contact Us on our website: http://mindex.co.za

Mindex Systems office@mindex.co.za | 021 976 0515 www.mindex.co.za www.inmagic.com

2018 looks to be a year of great opportunity. The year started with a

significant strengthening of the rand which, if sustained, will

eventually enable us to adjust prices for the better.

By the end of 2017, we started looking into Genie Plus and how we

will move forward with this exciting product in 2018. Our consultants

are hard at work getting to know the new software and creating

training resources. Keep your eyes peeled for more information

about this product. In the meantime, please have a look at the

A message from Cilliers

information available from the official Lucidea website. We are

also sharpening our support capabilities for Inmagic Presto and

Knowledge Management. Read more about Presto here.

We enjoy collaborating with all our customers and we realise

that there is still a lot more we can do to make your lives

easier. We will be expanding our consultation services to include

assistance with data clean-ups, backups and storage of data, and

many other essential services.

We are looking forward to a great year working with all of

you. See you soon!

Regards

Cilliers Odendaal

First Quarter 2018

Index

Recent Events

Clients used the quieter time at the end of the year to ask us to do their upgrades. Here is just a taste of what we’ve been doing. In November, Rika van der Walt (DIRCO), Elisca Coetzee (Ampath) and Mpho Machete (Department of Social Development) were amongst those who upgraded their systems to DBText 16 and WebPublisher 16 with the help of

Anne-Marie Forster, our Pretoria consultant. Also in November, Anne-Marie uploaded records for Lebogang Raphadu at the Agricultural Research Council (ARC). In December, Anne-Marie visited Peter Makola at Sappi to move their Genie to a new server. In Cape Town, Bella Odendaal and Dariol Wicomb spent half a day with Baheya Hardy at Iziko’s Museum of Social History to install their Genie upgrade on a new server. In January, the Department of Health upgraded to DBText 16 and WebPublisher 16, and we could also meet the new staff – Julius Nkgapele and Noluvo Mavotsho. Anne-Marie Forster paid a visit to the National Heritage Council (NHC) in January to demonstrate how their recently purchased Stocktake module and Cypher Lab Bluetooth scanner both work. (A Bluetooth scanner lets you scan the barcodes of items on the shelf to your system without having to drag your laptop along.)

Tshepo Theledi (right) and Bella Odendaal (left). Tshepo is from the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure

Development (GDID). They invited Bella to do a demonstration of Presto at their offices in early January. The

GDID currently use Inmagic Genie. The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) also joined the demo.

Doreen Mathabatha (left) and Khanyisa Gugwini (right) from the OCSLA (Office of the Chief State Law

Advisor) received certificates after their two- day Genie cataloguing course at the Cape Town office.

Mhlengi Ngcobo (right) and Mindex consultant Anne-Marie Forster (left). Bella and Anne-Marie paid a visit

to Mhlengi at the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) in Pretoria in mid-January. The DHA are using Genie for

their library.

In November last year, we did stocktaking at

the library of the Auditor-General of South

Africa (AGSA). We also activated the

Stocktake Module at the Helderberg College

in Somerset West, Western Cape, where we

took some photographs of the training.

Barenise Peffer (left) and Babalwa Mpiko (right) during

the training session at the Helderberg College of

Higher Education in Somerset West

Recent Projects

Stocktaking at the AGSA and at the Helderberg College of Higher Education

Gail Geduld (above left) and Yvette Sparrow (above

right) during the tea break

Siphesihle Bucwa (left) and Bella Odendaal (right)

during the training at the Helderberg College

The Library of the Helderberg College of

Higher Education is excited to begin

using the Stocktaking Module, such an

effective means of making sure that

only the books on the shelves are to be

seen on the catalogue. Bella spent some

time with the staff showing them

exactly how this innovation of the

Mindex Cape Town Office operates.

Yvette Sparrow Technical Services Librarian

Some photos courtesy of Gail Geduld

April Training Venue: Cape Town Mindex Cape Town Office, 2 Merry Rocks Close, Durbanville

April Training Venue: Pretoria The Innovation Hub, Mark Shuttleworth Street, Tshwane

Further course and venue details:

Did you know?

On the course booking form, you

can indicate in the notes field if

you would like to bring your own

laptop.

Please note that if you bring your

own laptop, you need to be at the

venue 30 minutes prior to the

starting time to ensure that we can

load the demo version onto your

laptop.

Scheduled Events

Scheduled training for 2018

16 − 20 April 2018 : Pretoria and Cape Town (see below)

11 − 15 June 2018 : Pretoria and Cape Town

03 − 07 September 2018 : Pretoria only

10 − 14 September 2018 : Cape Town only

In April, we bring you two new courses that focus on upskilling our Genie users, namely a one-day Genie

Cataloguing course and a two-day course on Journal Management using Genie. We encourage our Genie

users who may not currently use Genie fully in these respects to get more bang for their Genie buck and

sign up for the courses! Have a look at the course content below.

User Days

We look forward to seeing you all at our annual User Day events on these dates: Tuesday 04 September 2018 : Johannesburg User Day Wednesday 05 September 2018 : Pretoria User Day Wednesday 12 September 2018 : Cape Town User Day

DB/TEXT − Level 1 (1 Day) : 16 April 2018

DB/TEXT − Level 2 (1 Day) : 17 April 2018

Genie Cataloguing (1 Day) : 18 April 2018

❖ Overview of a basic record / Sources of information

❖ Elements of the title page / Authors

❖ Publishing data / Physical description Important numbers

❖ Non-printed materials / Journals / Serials

❖ Cataloguing with GENIE

Genie Journal Management (2 Days): 19 − 20 April 2018

❖ Ordering Journals / Receiving Journals

❖ Checking in Journals / Routing

❖ Linking Table of Contents Scanned images

❖ Claiming Missing Issues

❖ Lending / Renewals

Did you know?

On the course booking form, you

can indicate in the notes field if

you would like to bring your own

laptop.

Please note that if you bring your

own laptop, you need to be at the

venue 30 minutes prior to the

starting time to ensure that we

can load the demo version onto

your laptop.

April Training Venue: Cape Town Mindex Cape Town Office, 2 Merry Rocks Close, Durbanville

April Training Venue: Pretoria The Innovation Hub, Mark Shuttleworth Street, Tshwane

Further course and venue details:

Upcoming Conferences

South African Society of Archivists (SASA) Annual Conference: 3−5 July 2018

East London, Eastern Cape. The theme of this year’s conference will be:

“Archives and records in the era of misinformation”

Find out more at: http://www.saarchivist.co.za/22-slideshow/26-2018-conference

19th Annual LIASA Conference: 8−12 October 2018

CTICC, Cape Town. The theme will be:

“LIS as agents of community development and social transformation”

Find out more at: http://www.liasa.org.za/

14th International South African Online Information Meeting (SAOIM): 19−22 June 2018

Presented by Southern African Online User Group (SAOUG) and

Organisation of South African Law Libraries (OSALL)

CSIR ICC, Pretoria

The theme of this year’s conference will be:

“Where to…?”

Find out more at: http://www.cvent.com/events/saoim-2018/event-summary-

1b29f117f3254eee88631aba3a8093cb.aspx

New Inmagic users

2018 kicked off with a new Presto user.

We congratulate the Independent

Communications Authority of South

Africa (ICASA) in Gauteng with the

installation of their Presto system. They

will be using their new system for their

Projects and Applications for Licenses.

Look out for a small feature on this

upgrade in a future edition.

Thandi Taye of ICASA during the Presto installation

Get to Know Glynis

What was the most nerve-wrecking thing that happened during a client visit?

The server went down and refused to reboot in the middle of a WebPublisher

upgrade. WebPublisher got the blame. I suggested it was merely a coincidence

and was rebuffed with “There are no such things as coincidences”. I left a

gibbering wreck and didn’t sleep for three nights. When I returned, I received

an apology. It was a virus and not WebPublisher that had done the damage.

What a coincidence!

What makes you believe in the Inmagic product offering?

I started working on the original blue screen DOS version of DBTextworks 24 years ago and have worked

on every Windows version since. I had experience of other computer applications and was amazed by

the user-friendliness of the Inmagic product. Nothing gets lost or disappears, report writing is simple and

it understands text so searching is a breeze. You, as user, can take ownership of the textbases and create

exactly what you want for your organisation. Plus it is extremely stable when installed on a reliable

network.

WebPublisher had a WOW factor when it arrived which was surpassed by the addition of the Genie

interface. Lucidea, the new owners of Inmagic, continue to develop the product and stay abreast of the

demands of the library and information community. Keep a look-out for Genie Plus! What is the place you would like to visit?

Petra in Jordan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the new Seven Wonders of the World for its

uniqueness, history and breath-taking beauty. The Nabataeans [an ancient kingdom] created an amazing

water catchment, storage and irrigation which perhaps our Department of Water Affairs should study.

What is a life quote from your experience that you can share?

I walked 740km of the Camino Frances [the French Way, a route mostly across Northern Spain] in 2016

with all that I required in a small pack on my back. Rob and I started each day by not knowing where we

would sleep each evening, just following the camino shell route markers and stopping when we were

tired and in a place where we could hopefully find a (bunk) bed in a room housing fewer than 90 people.

One of the sayings for pilgrims on a camino is “The camino will provide” which it did for us. My favourite

camino saying is “Caminante no hay camino” which translates to “Traveller, there is no road” i.e. you

create your own path as you walk, just like life.

What would you take to read on a long flight?

If en route to Petra, “Married to a Bedouin” by Marguerite van Geldermalsen, otherwise a Deon Meyer

or Lee Child novel

Glynis Steer is our consultant in Johannesburg. Glynis started with Mindex in 2007 and was Systems

Librarian for an international mining company. She has worked in the public, university and private sectors.

A foray out of librarianship and into Organisation and Method Study and later into Medical Informatics as

Project Manager made her realise where her heart truly lies.

Profile: Glynis Steer

Data cleanup is the process of changing or removing textbase data that is incorrect, incomplete,

improperly formatted, or duplicated. Do these issues sound familiar to you?

❖ Duplications in validation lists ❖ Duplicate or empty records

❖ Records with no title

❖ Duplicate or no record type

❖ Records with no Class/Shelf number

❖ Duplicates or inconsistencies in the validation lists, e.g. of authors, subjects, publishers, places

❖

❖ Data entered into wrong fields, e.g. subjects appearing in Record Type

❖ Discrepancy between the Loans database and the Catalogue

❖ Duplicate or no barcode number

❖ ISBN numbers with dashes or spaces ❖ Spelling and punctuation errors in records ❖ Old borrower information

New Services − Data cleanup

Top left: Data entered into the wrong field

Top right: Duplicates and inconsistencies in a validation list

What is Data Cleanup?

Data cleanup is a new service we offer. If you have a contract with us, you can use of your contract hours

to get one of our consultants to clean up your data for you. Or to show you how to do it. If you follow

some basic steps, you will be able to clean up errors in validation lists, for example, yourself as we showed

you in the last newsletter. Many times, though, the problems run deeper and it’s best to get us to assist

you with cleaning up your data and to help you to plan for continued database integrity.

Contact the Mindex office at: office@mindex.co.za to set up a free consultation.

How we can help you

Customised statistics using searches and reports Statistics cannot always be pre-defined because everyone’s needs may differ. One library might need to

count their books and another library their reports; another library might like to know how many loans

were issued during a certain period, while yet another library might need to know how many books vs

reports were issued.

Using either the desktop (DB/Text) or the web interface, you should be able to get any kind of statistic

you need.

Using DB/Text

Option 1: Using your own “on the fly” searches to pull statistics.

You can do this from your desktop for both the Library module as well as the GENIE databases.

To do this, you will use a search screen that will allow you to search for the group of records that you

need to count. The secret here is to do the correct search. You will need to know your database in order

to search the correct fields. For example, if you want to search for all your books catalogued during a

certain period, you will need to do the search as follows:

Tricks and Tips

Getting statistics in GENIE or DB/Text − Part 2

Choose the record

type from your list.

Enter the date range, separating

first and last date with a colon (:)

Execute your search and view your results in the report window. The result of the search will already

give you the total number of records retrieved, but if you want to break down the same results by

group, you can now also select a report form to count the records by specific headings or groups.

Selecting an existing report form that counts records by group

You can now select a report form to count the records by specific headings or groups by clicking on the

Select form for this window icon. (This icon is explained at the back of this newsletter.) Now

choose one of the statistics forms from the existing list of forms.

The Library Module has some pre-defined statistics forms that you can use. From the Loans database,

you can use either: Stats>by Class, Stats>by Dept or Stats>by Title

If you do not have an existing form that can count your statistics for you, you can contact us to advise

and assist you. It might be a form that we have available or otherwise we can advise you to book some

time with one of our consultants.

It should show Sort Key Level 1 in the top box now.

Option 2: Creating your own form

For those of you who did a form designer course, you can create your own form to count statistics. A

very simple example will be to create a form that will use the sort headings and calculations from the

form designer.

Designing a new form to count statistics

Here are some very basic steps to guide you:

1. Open the form designer by going to Display > Design form.

2. Choose a blank form.

3. Add your first box (Right click > Add> Form box).

4. Click on the tab for Sort Keys. Click on Level 1 and Add.

5. Right click again. Add > Form box

6. This time click on Calculations and add the Calculation as follows:

a. Count(1) and Add

b. It should look like this:

7. You can close the window and then move your Calculated box to the right a bit.

8. Now click on the first box you added that should say:

10. Click on Report Options > Headers and Footers.

11. Click on Sort Header and then click on Change to Header/Footer.

12. Now click on the box for the Calculated value.

13. Click on Report Options > Headers and Footers

14. Click on Sort Footer and then click on Change to Header/Footer.

15. Your box for the calculation should now look like this:

9. Your form should now look like this:

Saving your new report form

22. Save your form and give it a name, e.g. Statistics Basic. Remember to save it as a Public form

for the Report Window.

1. Close the form designer.

Viewing records with your new report form

2. Do a search for the records you want to count.

3. View them in the report window.

4. Select your form from the list of forms by clicking on the Select form for this window icon.

Browse till you find your form (e.g. Statistics Basic) and select it.

5. The default sort for your database is by title, so your form won’t work properly now.

6. You will need to sort your records first to do a proper report.

Q & A

What does each of little icons or buttons at the top of the DB/Textworks screen mean?

Question

Answer

Hover over each icon and a short explanation will appear. On the next page, we show and explain the

icons that will be on your toolbar by default. Print and laminate the page for easy reference!

Now for some extra tips

Back to the forms designer (Display > Design form) and make the following changes:

❖ To make sure your stats line up properly, you can move the boxes next to each other and align

them (Tools > Align boxes > Anchor and top).

❖ Also remove the spaces between records (Form Properties > General Tab > Distance between

records 0).

❖ For Grand totals at the bottom, copy the calculated box and paste the new box right below the

first Calculation box. Click on Report Options > Headers and Footers and change the new box to a

Report Footer. Your form should now look like this:

Have fun and please feel free to contact us if you need some help. Watch this space in future editions for

more useful Tricks and Tips!

And the result when you do a search looks like this:

Sorting your records correctly

23. Click on the sort icon (This icon is also explained at the back of this newsletter.) and sort

your records by Record Type. Also tick the box for Exploded sort.

Icon Function Icon Function

Open a textbase

Help on this window gives help on the current form, e.g. help on searching if

you are on a query screen

Close and go back to the menu screen

Display record opens a detailed display of a selected record in a report

Go back to the Query screen to redo or filter the same query

Go back to the First record in a report

Browse choices (or F3) to open an alphabetical list of choices in the active

field Go to the Last record in a report

Find all records in the textbase

Go to the Previous record in a report

Open a New record edit window

Go to the Next record in a report

Sort report shows records in a report in another order

Edit record opens a screen on which you can make changes to a record

Select report printing form from the list of available print forms

Omit record removes a record from the current report (set of records) but does

not delete it from the textbase

Print your report using the default print form or current form onscreen

Next highlighted term jumps to the next occurrence of your search term

Help topics gives you access to DB/TextWorks help via a menu of topics

Previous highlighted term jumps back to the previous occurrence

Context help gives help on how a toolbar icon works when you click

on it

Show record images opens up only the images linked to records in the current

report (set of records)

New Query clears the query screen of the previous search terms

Save record saves and overwrites the current record

Execute query does the search (or press Enter)

Spell check runs the words in an open record through a spell checker

Add query box to the query screen during current session

Cut (or Ctrl-X) to cut selected text and keep it in memory on the clipboard

Select query screen from the list of available query screens

Copy (or Ctrl-C) to copy selected text to the clipboard

Fit window to form resizes a window when you select a different form

Paste (or Ctrl-V) to paste text either cut or copied from the clipboard

The Default DB/TextWorks Icons