Jamie Pearce | Candidate No.4096 | Centre No.

48317

Research Report
Contents
I. Organisation 1: Fulford School’s resource centre..............................................................2
A. Background Information.................................................................................................2
B. ICT Systems.....................................................................................................................2
1. Access IT...................................................................................................................2
2. Access IT Online Library...........................................................................................3
C. Data Handling Needs.......................................................................................................5
1. Backing the system up.............................................................................................5
2. Transactions.............................................................................................................5
3. Security....................................................................................................................5
4. Administration.........................................................................................................5
II. Organisation 2 – Phil Wood Electrical................................................................................6
A. Background Information.................................................................................................6
B. ICT Systems.....................................................................................................................6
C. Data Handling Needs.......................................................................................................6
1. Transactions.............................................................................................................6
2. Backup procedures and security..............................................................................6
III. Comparison between organisations..................................................................................7
IV. Bibliography.......................................................................................................................7

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 Jamie Pearce | Candidate No.4096 | Centre No.48317
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I. Organisation 1: Fulford School’s resource centre

A. Background Information

Fulford School was founded in 1963 and developed into a comprehensive school in 1970.
They currently teach around 1200 pupils, with an additional 200 students in the 6 th form
college branch of the school.

Fulford School is a maths and computing college meaning that they specialise in these areas,
of which an example may include the fact that it facilitated 14 computer rooms consisting of
between ten and thirty ‘high spec’ computers.

Located in the York area, Fulford School has a great reputation for excellent grades at GCSE
and A-levels, boasting staggering statistics such as, in the case of the GCSEs 2009, 33
students with 8 or more grade A/A*s, and an average over the entire year of 83% at 5+ A*-C
(source http://www.fulford.york.sch.uk/our-school/gcse-results/).

B. ICT Systems

1. Access IT
Due to the school’s status as a specialist is computing they have many ICT systems which are
all used to help the school run efficiently. I have chosen to focus on one ICT system which is
primarily located in the resource centre, but can also be accessed via the Fulford School VLE
website.

The school has an excellent resource centre consisting of just over 19 000 books, fictional
and non-fictional, but also a range of newspaper clippings compiled in portfolios; indexed in
the ICT system called ‘Access IT’.

The ICT system itself is a database which allows students to search for material. One of the
plethora of features of the database is its ‘Show me where’ section which displays a plan
view of the resource centre and it’s many shelves, and places a marker of the area at which
the book can be found.

This helps pupils to locate the material they require quickly and accurately which saves time.
Similarly, the database shows the user the book’s status, meaning that students don’t waste
time looking for a book that has already been taken out.

The purpose of the database is essentially to reduce the time it takes for pupils to find
material as the resource centre staff are aware that pupils don’t want to spend all of their
break times looking for books, and this is why the database is available online.

Another feature of the system is its versatility, allowing users to search by associated key
words using the ‘fast find’ section. On the other side of the spectrum, users can perform an

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 Jamie Pearce | Candidate No.4096 | Centre No.48317
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‘advanced search’ by opening the section and entering specific details for example the
book’s ISBN, year of publishing and genre.

2. Access IT Online Library

This section of the system allows users to access the library from any internet connection.
It’s extremely accurate as its records are refreshed in real time meaning that if someone
where to take out a book, the next time the page was refreshed its status would change
automatically.

Below are some screen shots from the webpage itself:

Figure 1 – ‘Fast Find’

As you can see, the ‘fast find’ section allows the user to query by ‘Title, subjects, author and
series’ keywords as default.

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Figure 2 – An example of a search

Once the user has entered some search terms, a list of related items will appear. As you can
see from Figure 2, the system shows statistics like ‘Copies’ and ‘Available’, as well as a
thumbnail of many of the books’ front covers.

Figure 3 – A screenshot of the ‘Advanced Search’ form

The user can enter very specific details using this section.

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C. Data Handling Needs
1. Backing the system up
As previously mentioned, the ‘Access IT’ system retains records on just over 19 000 books.
As a result, it is of paramount importance that the database is regularly backed up in order
to protect the information in case of accidental loss of some description, for example a fire
in the server room. On a weekly basis, the database is burnt to disks and stored off site.

2. Transactions
On average, the resource centre deals with around 100 transactions per day. As this would
take a long time to manually manage, all books are fitted with barcodes so that when a
student wished to borrow a book, the resource centre staff simply scan the inner cover of
the book which automatically updates its status to ‘out’ and after having scanned the
student’s library card in the same way, links the book to the student.

3. Security
All books are fitted with RFID tags which will sound the door alarms if a student walks
between the scanners with a book that hasn’t been taken out correctly. Not only does this
system ensure that anyone attempting to take books is caught, but acts as a deterrent.

Also, once students take books out, they are required to return them within a week or
renew them at the counter. In the resource centre, there is a post-box for returning items
which the staff open once per day and scan the contents back into the database, which
notifies the system that the book is returned so updates its status.

If this doesn’t happen, the database automatically directs an email to the student and their
tutor as a reminder. If that warning isn’t acted upon, the database sends a letter of warning
to the student’s parents / guardians as the final warning. If at this point the student fails to
return the book within the next week, the database will send a fine equal to the value of the
book to the student’s parents / guardians.

4. Administration
The administrator’s accounts are password protected to ensure that only staff can change
the system. This section of the software contains features like ‘new transaction’ which
requires the user to scan the book and library card of the student, and ‘complete
transaction’ which only requires the book’s barcode.

Some of the more system related functions include the ability to change rules, for example
setting it so that all transactions must be completed within 2 weeks rather than 1.

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II. Organisation 2 – Phil Wood Electrical

A. Background Information

Phil Wood electrical has been running in the York area since the year 2000, working on
electrical projects such as lighting, extensions and new buildings, fault finding and rewiring
amongst many more. The business is classed as a sole trader as Phil set up the company
and runs it on his own.

B. ICT Systems
The company uses Microsoft Office Excel to generate quotes for customers. The
spreadsheet consists of hundreds of different parts which, when ticked, are added to a
component list and the price is added up. The system was created as Phil felt that it was
much easier to organise projects with the help of computer technology.

In addition, the company uses Microsoft Office Outlook as a means of communication with
customers, but also for organising appointments. When a customer confirms a date and
time for work, Phil checks this on the calendar function of the software and adds it to the
appropriate date. This is then automatically synchronised with his mobile phone which
allows Phil to check his schedule when he’s away from the office.

C. Data Handling Needs

1. Transactions
On average, Phil works with around 3 customers in a week. As a result, the management of
the ICT system is relatively straightforward as Phil simply types in the details of each project
into his Outlook calendar.

2. Backup procedures and security

As the company is very small, these sorts of procedures are only implemented on a small
scale. The company’s computer is password protected so that the names and addresses of
customers are kept private. In terms of backing up the system, Phil uploads his documents
to a ‘Google Docs’ account (which is also password protected) on a monthly basis as the
information is needed to complete taxing procedures at the end of each year.

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III. Comparison between organisations

By comparison, the two organisations are of different types and scales. Phil Wood Electrical
uses the standard Microsoft Office 2007 software that comes with Windows PCs, whereas
the Fulford School Resource Centre uses specialises database software.

Due to the vast difference in the number of transactions, the software changes as you may
expect. The Fulford School Resource Centre needs the ability to input books through
barcodes as typing the ID numbers of books would be likely to result in human error at some
point when dealing with 500 transactions per week, whereas Phil Wood Electrical deals with
just 3, an average of 166 x less.

I think that the ICT systems are appropriate for the data handling needs of both
organisations as obviously the more transactions taking place requires a more efficient
system, and vice versa.

IV. Bibliography
Table 1

Figure / section Source Specific material used

Organisation 1 – http://www.fulford.york.sch.uk/our- Statistics about the
Background school/gcse-results/ school’s grades.
information
ICT systems Interview with Miss White, resource centre Details about the ICT
staff system and its
functions.
Figures 1 - 3 http://10.1.196.10:2000/ais/AccessItLibrary Screenshots of
functions
Data handling needs Interview with Miss White, resource centre Backup procedures
staff and transaction data
Organisation 2 - Interview with Phil Wood (who lives across Software used and
the street from me). why.

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