The omniscient reporting system

Abstract

In ALEPH, data can be retrieved for viewing or manipulation either via the ALEPH GUI, or via Oracle SQL. The main problems are that the existing ALEPH reports contain limited and often unlinked data, while using SQL is complex and can be intimidating. For example, consider extracting information that will combine both HOL and ACQ data (linked correctly), which is a task ranging from difficult to impossible using conventional ways. The National Library of Israel has created an easy to use and easy to configure reporting mechanism that extracts and combines data from the different schemes/modules of ALEPH (BIB, HOL, ITEMs and ACQ). The output is an XML file which is easily manipulated and viewed via tools as Excel, or as HTML using XSL. This session will demonstrate the reporting system, including its installation and configuration.