Find (Rated R)

As schools began to put data into databases, many processes were sped up tremendously. But there are many ways to digitize data and not all systems are created equal.

One of the great improvements is the ability to locate the records or data that you want for some job. With a room full of file folders it took hours or days to locate a group of students or applicants, which meant that mostly no one did that.

In a database, the data is separated into “records”. Basically the same thing as a row in a spreadsheet. One for each student, or one for each applicant. The columns in a spreadsheet are “fields” in a database. But in a database, any selection of the fields can be displayed on different screens, as lists or a single record on a “screen” or “layout”. In general, a spreadsheet is a very primitive database, but many people use them for productivity because either they don’t know the difference, or they don’t have access to a proper database. 

Schools installed databases in the 1990s to manage fundraising, admissions, college guidance and student/class information. It was a game changer in many ways, but as before, they are not equal. 

One of the most basic needs for a database, is the ability to see the records one needs for a job. This is called a “filter” or “query” or “find”. Most early databases were based on SQL and so doing a query required typing very geeky commands. One missed letter or symbol and nothing worked. That meant that the school needed a professional to set up a library of queries. Less than 1% of the faculty per staff could write a proper SQL query so any database using that was hard for users to be fully productive.

FileMaker Pro was a tool I discovered in the late 1980s. Out of the box, FileMaker lets a user find by any field on any layout in any combination, without knowing any computereze. That meant that if a school used a FileMaker-based database then practically anyone had access to hundreds and thousands and millions of finds with a few clicks. The difference cannot be over-emphasized. It is called a “find”.

A user clicks Command-F and the database screen empties with all the fields visible. The user just had to type in whatever search they want. F for sex and 9 for entry grade and X for application. Boom. A list of all the female students applying for 9th grade. Take off the F and it was all the 9th grade applicants. No coding.

Early on, I brought our simple FileMaker admission database to a small k-8 school in LA. As usual, we would go onsite having loaded the school’s data from whatever lists and spreadsheets they had.

For the training, I had a morning with the one person admission office woman and the Head. He was quite hands-on and had earlier gotten our registrar system so he was quite enthusiastic about the next step.

She was less than enthusiastic, but was willing to try. As in most small offices, she had a set of procedures that she had honed over time and knew exactly how to do each step and where everything was. This was going to be a huge bother to her routine.

I always liked to start by showing Finds. I had her find all the current students. Boom, a list. She said, “but what order are they?” I said, “Well to be precise, it is creation order. The way they entered the database.” She sighed and said, “So what am I supposed to do with that?”

I pointed to the third header and hit Sort. With a click they were alphabetized. She blinked. With another click they were alphabetized by grade and then alpha. Her eyes went very wide.

But she said, “Yes, but what about applicants?” I showed her how to enter Find. She clicked Applied. Boom. All the applicants. She said, “Can I alphabetize this the same way?” Yes. Boom.

She said “Wait. What about just the middle schoolers?” Find. Grade 7 and Grade 8. Boom. A list. 

Kids from just these two cities? Boom. Kids who want financial aid? Boom. She was clicking faster and faster, more and more finds and sorts.

The Head was smiling. 

Suddenly she burst out. “THIS IS MORE FUN THAN MY VIBRATOR!”

Dead silence. He looked at me. I looked at him. In my head I thought to myself whatever I say next may end up in court documents.

I was bursting to say something funny. “Maybe you should check the batteries” or “I’m not sure you are holding it right”. 

But I did not. 

It was deathly quiet. 

Finally I just said “ Well I am glad you like it. Shall we move on?”

Not all databases are created equal.