There are a half dozen SPARKS System utilities that you will need to know about so that you can use them periodically. These include:
1 - Editing the Institution Let 2 - System Configuration setup 3 - Backup and Restore 4 - Cleaning up Files 5 - Re-Numbering 6 - Footnotes
The SPARKS Institution List is a very large lookup table. It contains over 6200 entries of zoos and aquariums, dealers and exchanges, museums, individuals, and non-exhibit centers throughout the world. Some entries contain the address and phone. The names of geo-political units, such as cities, states, provinces, countries, regions, and continents are also included. Each entry is assigned up to a nine character abbreviation as a short identifier. For zoos, it is usually the city name, following the international studbook convention. For individuals, it is usually the individuals last name.
The list is used to assure consistent use of location and facility names. The 9 character mnemonic identifier is stored in the actual event record. However, because of an associated hierarchical institution code in the list, the exact geographic location can be determined. This allows SPARKS to determine that Audubon Park is in Louisiana, which is in the USA, which is in North America. A printed copy of the entire list, the ISIS Institution Directory, is available from ISIS.
On occasion you may find it necessary to make changes to the institution list. By selecting edit option [1] you will be presented with the now familiar edit screen that is used in event records, special data records, and UDF records. F10 is used to make changes to a existing institutions name, F9 will allow you to add an institution. Hit F1 for Help. Before adding a new entry, please check under alternative synonyms and spellings to be certain that the institution is not already in the list.
When editing the institution code it is important to maintain the hierarchy that is established. If you need an institution code, refer to the ISIS Institutional Directory, mentioned above. If you enter an incorrect insitution code, it will place the entered institution in another part of the world when producing reports by geographic location. Just as important is the mnemonic identifier or abbreviation. These should not be changed. Changes to the abbreviation will make it impossible to find institution names or locations when the old abbreviation is encountered in a record.
There are several small adjustments that you can make to change the way SPARKS looks. The first three pertain to the way dates are handled. Dates can be day/month/year or month/day/year. Dates can have two digit years or four digit years. Months can be in-numbers or in letters. See the section on date formats
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under Entering Data.
If you have a color screen and don’t like the default colors that come with SPARKS, you can change them, too. There are also a number of printer codes already defined to allow you to change printers. This is also convenient if you have two printers that you want to switch between. The last feature is the ability to change your password. When SPARKS is installed, the password is set to blanks.
Your data is not secure unless you have a recent backup. You must make regular backups, of each studbook, whenever you make changes to your data. Your hard disk will fail, the only question is when it will fail. Other mass storage devices are also not infallible.
Executing this backup utility will copy all the data files for your currently open studbook to the floppy disk drive of your choice. It preforms the backup by temporarily leaving SPARKS to run a DOS batch file. This batch file, named BACK.PRG, executes a file compression utility called ZIP. The file may be modified by knowledgeable users to work with other forms of backup devices.
Don’t just run this backup routine and assume that all is well. It is up to you to confirm that it has run correctly. Make sure that the files are indeed being copied to your floppy. They should be listed on the screen as they are written out. If you get any D0S error message pertaining to the backup, see your manual to correct the problem.
Restore works the opposite way. A batch file, named RESTOREPRG, executes to read back in to your hard disk from any floppy drive. It un-compresses using the utility UNZIP. Unlike backup, which only backs up your currently open studbook files, restore will restore any studbook files, whether or not it previously existed on the computer.
From time to time it is advisable to do a "house cleaning" of your studbook data files. This routine prints an audit trail of any records that have been flagged for deletion and then deletes them. This makes your files a little smaller.
Sometimes data records can become damaged, from power failures, re-booting, disk damage, or cosmic rays. As part of the cleanup process, records are scrutinized for damaged and repaired or removed. New indexes are also built.
SPARKS does allow you to re-number your studbook. By making use of temporary specimen numbers, you may assign new numbers to a batch of data. 7ypically, this is done when all data from a given year is accumulated and entered. Once you a confident that all is up to date, run the SPARKS Re-Numbering option. This routine will re-number all individuals, correcting sire and dam ID’s to their new numbers as well. 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.
You may also re-number with your first assigned permanent studbook numbers (all numeric). Once you have
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made a specimen number permanent (numeric), you may no longer use the re-number utility to change it’s number.
A number of the reports allow the use of various footnotes to appear at the bottom. These include the name of the person doing the compiling, the date of the current data, and a comment field. If any of these are blank they do not appear. Also changeable, along with the entry of the footnotes, are the class, order, family, species, and common names.
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SPARKS has the ability to load existing studbook data files that have been created using several other studbook management programs. This process of data conversion to the SPARKS format is performed separately from the SPARKS program using a standalone utility called LOADEDIT. You can evoke this program from the DOS prompt by typing LOADEDIT. You may choose to convert from an ”Omaha" format or a ”Houston" format. The process of conversion is the same.
After your file names are entered and verified, the empty SPARKS files are created. The most significant step in the conversion is the standardization of location names. To speed this step your file is temporarily indexed on location name. As each location is encountered it is compared against the extensive list that SPARKS uses. SPARKS uses a nine character mnemonic to identify each location. Every effort is made to interpret the location codes used in the original data files, but some will not be recognized. Frequent user input may be requested. It is very important to try to enter a consistent location name, one which SPARKS knows and can locate geographically. Without this it becomes very difficult to produce reports based upon any geographic criteria selected later on. Only after all the location records have been converted are the main birth and death records generated. Any Special Data records are also created in SPARKS format.
It is a good idea, immediately after your data conversion, to make a backup of the new data files from SPARKS. Also, a complete printed copy of the studbook should be scrutinized carefully to be certain that the conversion interpreted your data correctly. Different people have followed different standards in creating the initial record in Omaha files, for example - you should check carefully what SPARKS did with your first locations.
To help with data accuracy you are strongly encouraged to make a batch data editing run as explained next.
SPARKS data files may be sent through a powerful editing routine that is in the LoadEdit utility. This passes all specimen data to a battery of logic and consistency tests. We strongly recommend you do this to any set of data that you import into SPARKS. A printed report is produced, showing warnings for each specimen, as well as a summary page. This should be considered an important step in any data conversion or when you inherit a studbook. Clean data helps to support decisions when analysis is done. Dirty data can damage your analysis and management decisions.
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