database publishing

Think of database publishing and you may immediately think of something like the telephone directory, but this is only one example of publishing information being maintained in a database. Others might include: an external list of interest groups in a particular field, an internal employee directory, a gazetteer, an alumni list, a confidential ‘barred’ list, a product catalogue or stock availability list, hospital or school ‘performance’ tables, etc. To read about ABC’s involvement in the last of these, please click here.

The range of such publications is limitless, and will vary by sector. What characterises them all however is that the information, whenever it is published, must be timely, accurate and comprehensive. This is especially true if the information is made available in an on-line form, such as a directory published on a website (for an example of this type of project, click here).

if ABC manages your data then you can be certain that it will be maintained in a more-or-less permanent state of readiness, available to be published in a variety forms, whenever the need arises. Many of the considerations of the other capability areas apply equally here, such as the need to funnel changes to the database manager by the most efficient route, enabling changes to made as soon as they arise. Even if the publishing exercise is periodic, whether monthly or annually or anything in between, it still makes sense to process changes quickly, since this makes it easier to respond if deadlines are brought forward unexpectedly, or to capitalise on unforeseen opportunities to publish the information in new ways or using new channels.

If database publishing is the output, then it is important not to lose sight of the input. Many publishing exercises have a data-gathering component, either initially or on an ongoing basis. ABC can assist in many ways to source or update your data, or to process or manipulate it in some way once it has been captured. This is particularly relevant where you wish to canvass data anonymously, either because the data is entirely for analytical or statistical purposes (and where respondents may have a healthy scepticism about this) or where you do not wish to reveal its ultimate purpose.

Where data is published on an Intranet or over the Internet, on either a publicly-accessible or a ‘closed-user’ website, this may be maintained by means of a content management system (CMS). Using a CMS it is no longer necessary to change a web page when the data that underpins it changes, you merely amend the database. A simple example of this might be a sailing club publishing its programme and racing results on their club website. An even simpler, live example is our site map, the body of which is a simple database ‘query’, reading records from a data table.

But no matter what the nature of your database publishing requirement, we can tackle all or any part of this type of project, from gathering data to administering a web-based database and/or commissioning publication in printed form.

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