Background | Getting Started | Searching NERD | Viewing Spatial Data | GIS Layers
Searching GIS Layers | ArcMap Tabular Data | ArcCatalog Tabular Data | MSAccess | Metadata | ArcIMS
Note: use this link to refer to metadata elements
Opening screen of the NERD Access database.
Viewing NERD through MS Access
The five command buttons that appear in the opening screen (see above) of the MS Access portion of NERD are described below:
1. – which takes you to a searchable form where each research record can be viewed in full one at a time.
2. – which takes you to a searchable screen for all contacts and Principal Investigators associated with any research project.
3. – which prompts the user for the main Principal Investigator’s last name and returns a table showing every research project listed under that specific Principal Investigator.
4. – which prompts the user to first enter a Township, then a Range. This query returns a list of all NERD research numbers, Contacts, Authorization ID numbers, and additional information associated with the Township and Range entered.
5. Exit.
Project Information Form
The project information form displays all of the fields for the entire research record (Figure 1), and is therefore the best way to view and search through the database. To search the project information form, first select the Project Information button from the main switchboard. This will open the form with the total number of individual research records displayed at the bottom of the screen to the right of the “Record” field (Figure 1). To search for values in a specific field, click in the desired field, then click the Search button at the bottom of the main form. A “Find and Replace” box appears and asks for a value. Enter a whole or partial value, check that the appropriate field is listed in the “Look In” box, and that the “Match” is set to the desired action, for example “Whole Field” or “Partial Field”. The example below (Figure 2) results in a search for the name “Bond” in the Principal Investigator field. The search will only return records where the last name is Bond, not Bonder or Bondman, because the match is set to “Whole Field”. Click “Find Next”, and one record for that name will appear in the main form. To search for additional records, continue clicking on the “Find Next” button on the “Find and Replace” box. This technique can be used to search for specific data in any of the data entry form fields.
Figure 1. The Project Information form. The arrow points to the record scrolling buttons. The number to the right of the “Record” field states the total number of records in the database (at this time 154).
Figure 2. Searching the data entry form.
An alternative way to search for records in the data entry form is to use the records button at the bottom of the form to scroll forwards or backwards through the records (Figure 2, bottom yellow arrow). The single arrow 
takes you to the next record, the arrow with a line 
takes you to the last record.
Contacts
To search for contact information for a particular contact or Principal Investigator, open the Contacts screen from the main switchboard. This takes you to a form (Figure 3) that can be searched in the same ways explained above for the Project Information form, either by using the Search button on the form, or by scrolling through the records with the Record arrows at the bottom of the form.
Figure 3. The Contacts screen.
Search by Principal Investigator
When you select the “Search by Principal Investigator” button from the switchboard, you are automatically prompted to enter a Principal Investigator’s last name (Figure 4 ).
Figure 4. Searching by a Principal Investigator’s last name.
Once a last name has been entered, all of the complete records listed under that Principal Investigator are returned in a table (Figure 5 ).
Figure 5. Table returned for the Principal Investigator query shown in Figure 39.
Search by Township and Range
When the “Select by Township, Range, and Section” query is chosen, the user is prompted by three consecutive boxes to enter the desired Township, Range and Section (Figures 6 and 7 ).
Figure 6. First screen prompt of the Search by TRS query.
Figure 7. Second screen prompt of the Search by TRS query.
Required formats for the Township and Range are shown on the prompt boxes, such as “Enter the 2 or 3 digit Township number, followed by N or S”, from the Township prompt (Figure 6 ). The directions must be followed carefully to ensure return of the data. Townships are two digits (use a 0 in front of single digit township numbers, for example; 07), or three digits with a decimal for half townships (such as 11.5), followed by N for north or S for south. Ranges can be two digits (use a 0 in front of single digit range numbers, for example; 07), or three digits with a decimal for half ranges (such as 11.5), and must be followed by E for east or W for west (Figure 7 ). After entering data for both prompts, a table is returned that shows several fields for the research records associated with the requested Township and Range (Figure 8 ).
Figure 8. Table returned for the prompts used in Figures 6 and 7 .
To gather additional information for the specified records, write down or copy (control + C) the unique NERD Number for the desired record and return to the Project Information form. Make sure the cursor is in the NERD_NUMBER field in the Project Information form, and then select “Search” from the buttons at the bottom of the screen, which opens the “Find and Replace” box. Paste (control + V) or type the NERD Number into the “Find What” box and click the “Find Next” button. The full record for that NERD Number will be displayed on the form.
Individual database tables can be viewed by selecting the Database Window button 
from the opening screen. A box will open that displays all of the data tables (Figure 9 ). Because each table contains only a select number of fields from the entire record, however, searching for information through the individual tables is not recommended.
Figure 9. Database window displaying NERD tables
