Features of the CARLI_Reports_2015.mdb File

Those who use Microsoft Access to run reports on data in the Voyager system will be familiar with the reports.mdb file. This is the file that you link to your Voyager database, after which it gives you easy access to the data in your database. CARLI maintains a custom version of this file that has many improvements over the default “reports.mdb” file that is automatically downloaded into the C:\Voyager\Reports folder. The CARLI customized version contains the queries provided by Ex Libris (which they document as the “Prepackaged Reports”), and additional queries written by CARLI staff as well as queries shared by your I-Share colleagues.

The latest version of this custom file is called CARLI_reports_2015.mdb. When CARLI created it, we started with Ex Libris’ default reports.mdb. We changed a few of Ex Libris’ queries that had errors in them, and have deleted a few queries that do not work in the I-Share environment. 

The following is a list of updates since the last version of the CARLI_reports.mdb file (CARLI_reports_2009a.mdb) was issued in December 2009: 

1. CARLI_Reports_2015.mdb includes the latest versions of the BLOB queries and functions. (Ex Libris hasn’t done this yet in their default reports.mdb file as of this writing.)
2. CARLI_Reports_2015.mdb includes the latest tables for Voyager. A list of the fields in each table may be found in the Voyager Data Dictionary for V9.1.
3. CARLI_Reports_2015.mdb includes all of the queries posted to the Shared SQL page as of June 1, 2015, along with a sentence or two of description. This comprehensive collection of over 200 queries represents contributions from throughout the I-Share community. 
4. CARLI_Reports_2015.mdb includes an updated set of reports and queries for the “Bulk Import Rules” report (not a query).  It provides a convenient display of the bulk import rules in your database’s Voyager System Administration, and it includes the new bulk import options available in Voyager.
5. CARLI_Reports_2015.mdb includes a new table and query to keep the accuracy of historical circulation statistics between libraries that have left I-Share. A new table, “IShare_Databases_Removed,” retains each library’s DB_ID for The Chicago School of Professional Psychology (CSP).  

   Several shared queries refer to the “VOYAGER_DATABASES” table to identify the home library for patrons and items in current and historical transaction tables. CARLI has updated these queries to refer instead to a new “VoyagerDatabases” query, an update of the shared “Voyager Databases (local=0)” query, to unify the list of current and former I-Share databases. This enhancement will keep historical transactions pertaining to the (CSP) database in your reports, and keep statistics consistent.

   CARLI will release updates to the IShare_Databases_Removed table in the event that CARLI removes other libraries from I-Share.

6. CARLI staff have removed two queries that no longer function in the I-Share environment. The “UB Home Patrons - Historical Charges by Home Patron Group" and "UB Home Patrons - Historical Requests by Home Patron Group" queries no longer return data, following CARLI’s action in April 2015 to remove PATRON_ID information from the UB_CHARGE_ARCHIVE and UB_REQUEST_ARCHIVE tables.

June 11, 2015