When you choose the first option from the SPARKS main menu you get into the data entry / data editing part of the system. A password is requested. When SPARKS is installed, the password is set to blank - i.e. just hit the [Enter] key to go on. You may re-set the password in the System Utilities section if you wish to use password protection.
Next choose to:
Specimens are stored in the computer by their assigned studbook number. Whenever you are going to work with data for a single specimen, whether for data entry or producing a report, it is always quickest to edit or retrieve if you know the studbook number of the specimen. However, you may ask the computer to retrieve the data by other identifiers. These include a specimen’s local ID at a chosen location, tag/band ID, tattoo, name, or transponder number.
If you’re about to enter data for a new specimen, just enter the new studbook number.
The idealized method of numbering your studbook specimens is to start with the first specimen as "1" and sequentially increment each additional specimen as it is/was born. This would yield a chronologically numbered studbook. Such is rarely achieved, because new information frequently comes along for a previously unreported birth or capture and there is no room to insert the specimen in the correct order.
We actively discourage the idea of fixing up the chronological order of the numbers by re-numbering routinely. Once a studbook is distributed or published, you have defined the permanent numbers that you wish the world to use in reference to your specimens. Usually, other researchers and animal managers rely on the continuity of the numbers - and you will cause them considerable grief and records confusion if the specimens change their assigned studbook numbers. To preserve approximate chronology of numbers, you may want to leave unassigned blocks of numbers which can be left for specimens uncovered at a later date. For example, you may not want to start with "1" - you might wish to leave room for assembly of earlier history by starting at 1000.
SPARKS does not care what you use for a specimen "studbook" number. In SPARKS, it is simply a six character field. You may use numbers and even upper case letters. The studbook number field is right justified, which means that a single character comes before two characters. Thus, if you temporarily assign (see below) a number as "2A" it will not sort between "2" and "3", but between "29" and "30".
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ISIS recommends assigning temporary studbook numbers while studbook data is being compiled. This includes starting from scratch when a species is not a managed taxon and has no existing studbook. You might also use this strategy for a few months when recording new and recent data for births or captures to be added to your studbook. To indicate that a studbook number is temporary, make the first digit a letter. You may use any letter, however the letter "T" is the standard we’re adopting. You may even wish to code different batches of temporarily-numbered data; for example by using "Ps for one year and "U"s for the next.
SPARKS does allow you to re-number your studbook. Assuming you have temporary specimen numbers - assigned just to help you assemble information, you may automatically assign new numbers to a batch of data. Typically, this is done when all data from a given year is accumulated and entered. Once you are confident that all is up to date, run the SPARKS Re-Numbering option under System Utilities. By choosing a batch of temporary numbers with the same prefix letter, you may assign a new number to each, automatically incrementing the next one in chronological order. The new number may be another temporary number by prefixing it with a letter. It may also be a permanent studbook number - with no alphabetical characters in it - just a pure number. Once you have made a specimen number permanent (i.e. numeric), you may no longer use the SPARKS re-number utility to change it’s number.
It is possible to change the number of a permanently assigned studbook specimen. There are occasions, such as when compiling a new studbook, when conflicts in the data are resolved and corrections are needed. This can only be done, on a specimen by specimen basis, when a specimens’ data is brought up for editing. Please be careful about changing a permanent studbook number at any time, as it may effect others using your data.
You can move the cursor about using the arrow keys. If the cursor is in any box or quadrant when you hit the enter key, that quadrant expands to fill the screen and allows you to edit the fields within. If the cursor is between quadrants when you hit enter, you return to select another studbook number for editing or go back to earlier options. You may also print a single specimen report from this screen, as the box at the bottom shows.
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Date information is more complex than it might initially seem. This is because there are many facets to dates. They can be entered and displayed in many ways. SPARKS also allows you to estimate the accuracy of a date by recording various certainty levels. All dates can be set to European or American format as well as alpha or numeric months.
In entering dates in SPARKS (whether it is a birth date, transaction date, or removal date) you are requested to enter the value into a date field or optionally into an age field. If your value is an exact date, where the day, month, and year are known, enter the date only and leave the age field blank. A blank age field implies an exact date. If your date value is an estimate, enter the estimated date and the degree of estimation. As an example, if the date value is 0101/47, enter an age of Y to indicate that this is only good to the year. Use M and D for date values such as 01/03/53. If you can not estimate a date to the year, but have a good idea that it is within a several year time period, then use the range estimate. To specify a range such as plus or minus two years, enter a date as you would for a year estimate (01/01/47) and then enter the age field as R2. This indicates 1947 +I- 2 years. You may use up to +/- 9 years with the range estimate.
Sometimes you do not know the exact date but you think the date is a few weeks ago, such as a new birth. In this case do not enter anything in the date field but use only the age field. In this example enter D14 to mean about two weeks prior to today. You may also use M and Y to indicate months and years prior to today. Entries prefixed wilh R require a date in the date field to be bracketed by the range you are entering.
As a last resort, a totally unknown date may be indicated. When UNK is entered for the age field, SPARKS will always perform analyses and reports taking this missing data into account. However, for sorting, SPARKS has to have something and will use the date of entry for sorting purposes. The use of todays date forces the event to become ordered last in a default chronological sort. This may not be what you had in mind. To force the event to be ordered elsewhere in the list of other events, enter a bogus value in the date field that is between the other event dates as well as an age of UN'
To erase or blank out a date, so that you may enter only an age field, use the Del key.
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You may also elect to deal with dates in either European or American formats. The European convention, used widely around the world, is days before months (DD/MM/YY) while the American convention is months before days (MM/DD/YY). The default setting for SPARKS is European. All dates are considered to be in the 1900’s unless otherwise indicated. However, with only two digits to indicate a year, you can’t enter dates from the 1800’s {or 2000’s). When you wish or need it, a four digit year field may be requested by asking for the century setting. Date format and century control features are set in the Systems Utilities section dealing with System Configuration.
One last option dealing with dates: when dates are displayed in reports they are typically shown as 12 Feb 1947 (or Feb 12 1947). This is to avoid all confusion over which value is to day/month and which century do you mean. SPARKS refers to this as the alpha format. You may change this to a numeric month format, as 12 2 1947 (or was that 2 12 1947), in the System Configuration, also.
At the data entry screen, move the cursor to the upper left quadrant and hit the enter key. If this is a new specimen, with no data yet entered, this will initialize the new record. The box expands to fill the entire screen and the complete master record for the specimen is displayed. The right side of the screen contains various instructions as you enter each field. Most are hopefully self explanatory. For further information on items like studbook numbering and date fields see paragraphs above. If you need more help hit the Fl key.
Move the cursor to the upper right. Hit the enter key to expand the event records screen. Each event that has occurred to the specimen is listed in date order. There are two kinds of event sets; management and movement.
Management involves regional management plan status (SSP, EEP, etc.). When did the specimen enter regional plan? When did it leave or change to another regional plan? When is it declared surplus?
Generally speaking, a wild caught animal is NOT caught in a zoo, but caught in the wilds of Africa, Peru, Tahiti, Central Park, etc. When entering an animal as wild caught, enter it’s wild caught location and best known date of capture Then add a transfer event to the zoo that first held the animal and the date that zoo recieved it.
Movement events may be birth or capture, transfers from one facility to another, and finally death or release.
What do you do with the list? The bottom of the screen will show some starting answers. More is available by hitting the F1 key. The arrow keys will move you up or down through the list. Place the light bar on the record you would like to change and hit the F10 key. A window showing the selected records details appears. As you go through each field make any changes you need. When through, the
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window disappears and the corrections appear in the list.
If you need to add a new event to the list use the F9 key. The same window will appear, but the fields are blank. Add your data.
To delete one of your event records from the list, position the light bar on the record and hit the delete sequence of hits. This involves holding down the control key (the CTRL key) and typing the letter U. [This is usually written as "U]. An indicator will show in the Status area at the bottom. Also, a * will display next to the outgoing record. If you wish to change your mind, before leaving the list, you may hit ^U again to un-delete the record.
When through with all your changes and additions, hit the enter key or the escape key to return to the quadrant edit screens. A quick logical consistency check of your list is preformed. If simple illogical errors occur, such as birth after death, you are prevented from the return until the list is corrected.
Try out the lower left quadrant. This allow you to enter dozens of different Special Data items. Included are things like house name, tattoo, breeder number, permits, tag/band/ring, notch mark, transponder number, death number, old studbook number, et cetera. There is also an extensive list of user supplied items, called OwnCodes. Enter a V to view them. You may even add to the OwnCode list depending on your own needs.
If you already have some Special Data records you will see a familiar screen. It is a list screen just like the one mentioned above for the Event records. It works the same way. If you do not yet have any Special Data
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records for this particular specimen you automatically go to the add (F9) step.
The UDF records are in the lower right quadrant. By now you probably know what a User Defined Field is. If not, see the next section on how to set them up. If none are yet set up, you will not be able to edit any UDF’s.
Editing the UDF’s is just like the Event Records and Special Data records; a list screen. Make your changes and additions, hit enter or escape to return to the Edit Data quads.
For any given studbook there are any number of types of data for which SPARKS cannot anticipate your need. There are probably many data items that someday will be useful. You can define extra fields for data collection that are pertinent only to your studbook. These are called UDF’s. User Defined Fields may be established at any time from the data edit section. There are four types of UDF’s; date fields, number fields, character fields, and logical fields.
The use of UDFs is limited only by your imagination. Examples include defining a character field to contain the sub-species name (or unknown) if you are recording your studbook as a species. You could define a logical field to record hybrid status and a character field to describe the hybrid cross, a numeric field to store important genetic anomalies, date fields to record the dates of events or samples. These UDF’s are repeating records. This means that a value may be stored more than once. If a estrogen value is taken periodically you can store each new value and still maintain the previous ones.
There can be some redundancy between UDF’s and Special Data items. Weight/length is a Special Data field but you could also define a VDF for weight. There is a difference in how the data can be used. Some Special Data items, such as weight/length, are sent when contributing data to ISIS. UDF fields are not. The mntents of UDF fields may be used as selection retrieval criteria when used for reports and analysis. Special Data items can not.
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