Chapter 2 - Folder Reconstructive Surgery

This week, I hit the ground running. I was excited to finally get the project going and I was eager to begin my work. As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to begin the project by first reconstructing the folder organization. First, let me breakdown the previous folder scheme. In the old scheme, every time a user would download the data from the HOBO devices, they would store the files into a folder named after the month and year. For example, if I were to download new data today using the old scheme, I would save the files into a folder called Feb 08 hobo data inside the HOBO Data main folder. The library has been downloading data for roughly 3 years now and this has led to a lot of folders. With the current system, trying to find Oct 06 data would take some time as you would have to track it down among 30 other folders. This scheme seemed very unorganized and somewhat haphazard to me. Although it does not really hinder the user from using the newest data, it would be very hard to pinpoint and find older data should it be required. Here is a screenshot of the old scheme to give you an idea of how it was organized. Now that I have discussed the old scheme, I can talk about the new folder scheme I developed this week.

When thinking about what to do for a new folder scheme, there was really only one idea that came to mind. The new scheme had to first organize the data by year. The library has collected data from 2005 to 2008. So in the main folder, I had to create four folders, one for each year of collected data. Next, inside those folders, I created twelve folders for each month of the year (I only created two folders for 2008). I first started by creating folders named after each month. For example, in 2005, I created folders called January, February, March, etc. As I finished creating the month folders for the 2005 folder, I realized that this was not going to work very well because Windows would automatically sort the folders alphabetically.

To test my theory, I went back to the main directory and then I went back into the 2005 folder. Upon doing so, I found that my assumption was correct. Windows had sorted them alphabetically, just as I anticipated. This meant that April was the first folder at the top. Having the months sorted alphabetically is completely different than the sequential order that we are used to seeing. Since March is the third month of the year, I naturally found myself looking for it at the top of the list, where alphabetically, it is actually in the middle. Although this problem is trivial, I did not see the point to causing any unnecessary confusion. So to correct this problem, I added the number of the month to each folder. So instead of January, I named it 1 - January and so on. So now every time you go into the folder, the months are in the order that we are more accustomed to seeing.

With the month folders now in their normal order, I decided I would make another change. I was concerned that when downloading the data, you may not be able to see which year you were working with. Without being able to see the year, someone could have trouble trying to figure out which January they were in. Granted, this is easily fixed by just going back one directory, but I felt that it would be better to just to complete each folder name and maximize its accessibility. So, I decided to add the year to the end of each month folder. For example, the names now looked like 1 - January 2006, 2 - February 2006, and so on. With those additions, I was finally satisfied with the naming system for the month folders. To get a better idea of the final naming scheme, here is a screenshot of the new folder scheme.

With the folders created, and the naming scheme in place, I was ready to move the old data into the new folders. The first thing I made sure to do was to backup the data in the older folder scheme. I created a backup folder and then I moved all of the old folders to the backup folder, leaving them exactly as they were. This way, should the need arise, the older data can be accessed using the older scheme. From there, I then began moving the data from the old folders to the new folders, making sure to compare the new folder with the old folder to make sure they matched. So for example, I copied Jan 06 hobo data into 2006/1 - January 2006/. After copying over all of the data, I was pretty satisfied with my new folder scheme. I feel that this new scheme is far more organized and will make the data more accessible and easy to find.

That was not all I did this week. I also began my work on trying to fix the two non working HOBO devices. I met with Pam this week to discuss the folder scheme. I also asked her what was wrong with the two non working devices. She informed me that she had replaced the batteries on the two devices, but doing so did not fix the problem. Every time she tried to connect a single HOBO device to the HOBO Shuttle (a device that allows you to collect all the data from multiple HOBOs into one place) it would give her a communication failure error. So I began looking into this problem. First, I tried connecting a HOBO device to the shuttle myself. The results were identical as I also received the same error. I then went and tried to connect the HOBO device directly to the serial port on the computer. I used the BoxCar software to see if it could pick anything up. This did not work either as the software could not even detect the device. So I began researching some solutions. However, while doing this, Pam decided that I should forgo my research. She told me to just replace the two non working HOBO devices with two working devices that she received from the College’s iTec services.

With these two new devices, the library was back to six total devices. First, before these new devices could be used, I had to clear the existing data off of them. The only way to do this is to download the data off the device. Once you offload the data from a HOBO device, whether it is to a computer or to the HOBO Shuttle, the device is cleared and is ready for new data. So to clear these two devices, I hooked each one up to the computer and downloaded their data. I saved this data to the backup folder just in case anyone ever needed it. Once the data was off the devices, I also needed to change some of their configuration options. First, I had to make sure that they were recording temperature and relative humidity data every 30 minutes. Each HOBO device can record data points at a variety of intervals. The lowest option is every five seconds, but you could also record points once a day, or once a week even. Pam had set the other four devices to record data every 30 minutes, so I set the two new devices to the same interval. Next, I had to also reset the device’s description (this is device’s name in essence) so that it indicated where in the library the device was located. For example, I renamed one of the descriptions to L5 (E) - Circulation. This description explains where the device is located in the library. L5 represents the number of the device. This is the 5th HOBO device. The E represents the east side of the library. Finally, the Circulation part signifies that the device is located in the Circulation section of the library.

When renaming the descriptions for these devices I came up with an idea. Since these devices are spread throughout the library, someone who did not know where they were would have no idea where to look. Most of the devices are mounted underneath shelves and can be hard to find. My idea was to create a map of the library that would pinpoint the locations of the devices. This map would help anyone find the devices, regardless of who was asked to download the data. Thankfully, Pam already has a map of the library so all I need to do is just draw the locations of the HOBO devices on the map.

Now that I have the new folder scheme in place, and I have six devices working, I think I am ready for the next part of the project. I am excited about what I have done so far and I feel have made good progress. I feel confident that what I have done is the first step towards helping the library develop a sound systematic approach to downloading the data. Next week, I will first draw the devices on the library map. Then I will work on recreating the downloading procedures. To do this, I will go through the procedures myself, documenting every step, including all messages, boxes, clicks, and every possible option so that the procedures can be as easy and accurate as possible. This documentation should give anyone, regardless of computer knowledge, the ability to download the data. So, until next time, thanks for reading.