Research Methods Resources

Research Methods Resources

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The Electronic Logbook

The Electronic Logbook (or just Logbook for short) is a computer system developed by Peter Muraya of the ILRI-ICRAF Research Methods Group, aimed at assisting in the following data management areas: 

• To integrate raw data in a synergistic way (i.e. the total benefit of managing integrated data has to be more than that or individual stand-alone datasets); 

• To encourage data management practices that lead to good data quality; 

• To help to maintain the meaning of data and, consequently, its usefulness, among collaborating scientists over long time periods; 

• To create more time for research by exploiting the state of the art in computer technology so that tedious and repetitive data management tasks can be performed efficiently. 

The Logbook Database is based on a highly structured, data model originally designed for Agroforestry research data but adaptable to a variety of disciplines. In addition to the Logbook database, the Logbook toolkit includes a generalised up-loading software package that uses a wide range of data files as inputs to a relational database. This software application - the Logbook Assistant - comes with the Logbook database as part of the toolkit. 

Logbook encourages good data management and data documentation. It enables the user to check the data structure and helps maintain the integrity of the data. Data from several studies can be stored together in a single database file and the Logbook Assistant used to browse the database. In this way there is only a single file to backup and update. Logbook includes facilities for storing the meta-data in the same database and thus archiving becomes a more trivial task than previously.

Click here to download the user manual (1,283 KB - zipped MS Word, MS Excel and MS Access files).

The Files for this Toolkit are available in two options. The first one for users of a Windows 2000 or Windows NT operating system and MS Outlook 2000. The second one for users of a Windows XP operating system and MS Outlook 2003.

Download the Electronic Logbook toolkit installation files for use with a Windows 2000 or Windows NT operating system and MS Outlook 2000.

Download all necessary files in 1 zipped file.

 

dstrib2000.zip    (17,083 KB)

Download each file one at a time.

lb1.CAB  (1,280 KB)

lb5.CAB  (1,424 KB)

lb9.CAB   (1,424 KB)

lb13.CAB   (175 KB)

lb2.CAB  (1,424 KB)

lb6.CAB  (1,424 KB)

lb10.CAB  (1,424 KB)

setup.exe  (138 KB)

lb3.CAB  (1,424 KB)

lb7.CAB  (1,424 KB)

lb11.CAB  (1,424 KB)

SETUP.LST (7 KB)

lb4.CAB  (1,424 KB)

lb8.CAB  (1,424 KB)

lb12.CAB  (1,424 KB)

Download the Electronic Logbook toolkit installation files for use with a Windows XP operating system and MS Outlook 2003.

Download all necessary files in 1 zipped file.

 

dstrib2003.zip    (10,159 KB)

lb1.CAB  (1,280 KB)

lb5.CAB  (1,424 KB)

lb2.CAB  (1,424 KB)

lb6.CAB  (1,424 KB)

lb3.CAB  (1,424 KB)

lb7.CAB  (1,424 KB)

lb4.CAB  (1,424 KB)

lb8.CAB  (342 KB)

For more information on the Logbook, contact its main developer Peter Muraya (p.muraya*cgiar.org).

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