Specific uses of a data management system for data reduction and tabulation

The Remedial Action Survey and Certification Activities (RASCA) group processes large amounts of data for each of the many properties surveyed each year. In previous years, data manipulation (e.g., converting from cpm to R/hr) was performed using hand calculators. A system has recently been developed which largely automates the conversion of all field data and their tabulation for reporting purposes. The system consists of three items of hardware and two items of software. The hardware includes a Commodore Business Machines (CBM) Model 8032, an 8050 dual 5 1/2 inch floppy disk drive and a Gemini dot-matrix printer. The software includes a commercial data management system, Manager (developed by Canadian Micro Distributors) and an in-house program (DATA TABLES) written to read the Manager files and print the tables. Manager is a very flexible data management system that allows entry of data into sequential files which are sortable over any selected variable. Data are entered into sequential file and stored on a floppy disk for use at a later time. When all data have been correctly edited and proofed, the DATA TABLES program is invoked to read the sequential files and print out report-ready tables. Efficiency, and especially, accuracy in preparing data for reporting have been greatly increased