ali-butler
06-06-2009, 07:09 AM
I got talking to my neigbour, Dr Eldon Worral yesterday and he told me about a research project he has been commissioned to conduct by the Maritime Museum in Liverpool, England. The aim of the project is to analyse the records they hold on trade between China and Liverpool. Whilst Dr Worral is an expert in the field, he is not skilled when it comes to ICT. At present he has an assistant, who also dosent have much in the way of ICT skills, laboriously going through micro-film records of the bills of laden spanning more than a century and recording the details.
The method the assistant is using at present is to simply type the details into a MS Word document. Whilst I would in no way call myself an expert when it comes to building databases I can immediately seen how properly recorded in a database the information recorded on the Museum's micro-film collection could be made incredibly useful as research tool for researchers around the world. The method currently being used would not create such a tool.
Already Dr Worral's research has revealed that the long standing British prime minister of the Victorian era, William Gladstone was heavily involved in the importation of opium into Liverpool.
My own initial thoughts is that each bill of laden should have its own unique ID as should the ship names, shipping compasnies,ports of transit and ports of origin. Also the bill of laden table should include info on the type amounts and and value of the cargos.
As I mentioned earlier I am no expert, I regularly use spreadsheets and a company database at work so understand the importance of currently formating and using data and the potential of databses. Im partivcularly interested in crreating a system that would allow a user to query the DB with questions such as:
- what percentage of cargo carried by a particular shipping line was made of porcerlain?
or
- did the amount of opium carried, measured as a percentage of total value of goods carried increase after 1832?
Im confident that such a system could be created, im less sure that I could create such a system that would merit being widely used.
And that is why I am posting here, in the hope that a MS Access wizard with a fondness for maritime history might be willing to chip in with some ideas, advice, conceptual models or even just morral support in order to get the idea of the drawing board and onto the screen.
With regards and thanks in advance
Alisdair Butler
The method the assistant is using at present is to simply type the details into a MS Word document. Whilst I would in no way call myself an expert when it comes to building databases I can immediately seen how properly recorded in a database the information recorded on the Museum's micro-film collection could be made incredibly useful as research tool for researchers around the world. The method currently being used would not create such a tool.
Already Dr Worral's research has revealed that the long standing British prime minister of the Victorian era, William Gladstone was heavily involved in the importation of opium into Liverpool.
My own initial thoughts is that each bill of laden should have its own unique ID as should the ship names, shipping compasnies,ports of transit and ports of origin. Also the bill of laden table should include info on the type amounts and and value of the cargos.
As I mentioned earlier I am no expert, I regularly use spreadsheets and a company database at work so understand the importance of currently formating and using data and the potential of databses. Im partivcularly interested in crreating a system that would allow a user to query the DB with questions such as:
- what percentage of cargo carried by a particular shipping line was made of porcerlain?
or
- did the amount of opium carried, measured as a percentage of total value of goods carried increase after 1832?
Im confident that such a system could be created, im less sure that I could create such a system that would merit being widely used.
And that is why I am posting here, in the hope that a MS Access wizard with a fondness for maritime history might be willing to chip in with some ideas, advice, conceptual models or even just morral support in order to get the idea of the drawing board and onto the screen.
With regards and thanks in advance
Alisdair Butler