Document management systems
Modelo funcional de un sistema documental que organiza información textual, procesa consultas complejas y gestiona bases de datos mediante técnicas de recuperación eficiente.
Specifically designed to manage databases containing textual information. Users are able to refine their queries and obtain the information they need by combining multiple search criteria with very rapid retrieval.
This type of program allows the development of parameterized applications with little or no additional programming. In our country, given the low levels of use and knowledge of data management systems (DBMS), these tools have been adopted to replace them, aiming to satisfy information needs more precisely.
Traditional DBMS are not capable of handling any type of documentary database, since they are conceived to manage factual or numerical databases and respond effectively only when users pose highly precise questions within a limited range of query possibilities. The basic general characteristics of a document management software package are:
- DMS programs are designed to store and easily retrieve textual information.
- DMS store descriptive records of documents, divided into several zones (fields or paragraphs) that contain specific information.
- DMS can very rapidly retrieve all records that match the criteria contained in a search equation through the use of inverted-file techniques.
- DMS allow querying a database by logically combining (with Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT) multiple search criteria.
- Many DMS include specific modules for the use and management of thesauri—controlled vocabularies that regulate semantic relationships among terms and eliminate semantic ambiguities during the description (indexing) stages.
The basic tasks a DMS is capable of performing are:
- Creation and management of databases: entry, correction, and deletion of records.
- Online information searches with very short response times using Boolean logic.
- On-screen or printer editing of search results and production of printed catalogs and indexes.
Other characteristic functions of DMS include: maintenance procedures that remind the user to create database backups; protection of database contents through access-level settings (passwords for different user categories); assisted query tools for users unfamiliar with the system; multiuser software; storage of search strategies so they can be reused at any time; and the ability to format printed outputs (headers, margins, pagination, etc.).
The application field for this type of program is extensive: local creation of bibliographic databases (with references to all kinds of documents—books, journal articles, reports, memoranda, projects, etc.); databases containing information on human resources, institutions, medical records, product catalogs; databases for sales control, client tracking, correspondence management, subscription management, production of yearbooks, catalogs, directories, and more.
The types of users who can obtain significant benefits from a PC-based information system combined with a document-management software package include: information and documentation centers, corporate documentation departments, research centers, consulting firms, professional offices, media organizations, city councils, publishers, laboratories, public-administration departments, universities, hospitals, and others. Most DMS packages for microcomputers have been developed and marketed in the United States. In Europe, only France and especially England show notable development and marketing of DMS programs. As for our country, very few products have been developed and many have not yet been, or will not be, released to the market.
Why databases?
Traditional information systems have also been called process-oriented systems, because they place emphasis on the processing of data, which are stored in files used for a single application. Applications are analyzed and implemented entirely independently from one another, and data are not usually transferred between them; instead, they are duplicated whenever needed by more than one application.
This produces, in addition to unnecessary memory consumption, longer processing times, as the same checks and operations are repeated across different files. More seriously, inconsistencies arise when data included in more than one file are not updated simultaneously.
The dependence of data on physical media and specific programs reveals a lack of flexibility and adaptability to change, which negatively affects the overall performance of the information system.
The solution to these problems requires adopting a different viewpoint, one in which processing takes a secondary role while data become the principal component. Data are organized and maintained in a structured set that is not designed for a single application but instead aims to meet the user’s overall information needs.
These data-oriented systems are gradually replacing process-oriented systems which, due to their low reliability, limited representation of reality, and poorly ensured confidentiality, have increasingly lost user confidence.
