1. SUI*4ARY and PURPOSE 



1.1. Sunmary: 



This User's Manual is designed to help you use the Montana Rivers 

 Study data management system. The system is written in dBASE III Plus, 

 an efficient data base management system. You, as a user, need not be 

 concerned about understanding the inner workings of dBASE III Plus. The 

 information management system that you will be using is completely menu 

 driven, allowing you total access to all of the functions and utilities 

 available in the information management system. 



The Montana Rivers Study Data Base is being managed by the Montana 

 Natural Resource Information System, Montana State Library, 1515 East 

 Sixth, Helena, Montana 59620, phone (406)444-3115. 



Questions regarding the data base or its use should be referred to: 



Programmer /Analyst 



Montana Natural Resource Information System 



(406)444-3115 



or 



Janet Decker-Hess 



Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks 



(406)752-5501 



The Montana Rivers Study data base is a dynamic system and will be 

 continuously updated. However, it is crucial that any updating or changes 

 in data be centrally coordinated. You should never attempt to modify the 

 data in your copy of this data base. Instead, list your suggested changes 

 or mark them on a copy of the printout and send them to the responsible 

 senior resource expert (refer to the Appendix D for names and addresses of 

 senior resource experts). Any comments regarding the data management 

 software itself should be addressed to NRIS. If you encounter a problem 

 with the query programs, first turn your printer on, hit the "escape" key, 

 then hold down the shift key and simultaneously hit the "PrtSc" key. This 

 will produce a printout of the screen and record of the program(s) causing 

 the problem. Next, on this printout write the choices you made from the 

 previous menus to get to this point (for example, "Resource area detailed 

 report; Wildlife; Geographic areas; Townships and Ranges). If this is not 

 done, it is virtually impossible to identify and correct the problem. 



Throughout this manual examples using actual data from the data 

 base will illustrate the ease of use and the power of the system. By 

 replicating the examples in this manual on your own system, you will 

 learn your way around the system and will become more familiar with its 

 operation and its limitations. 



Because of the very large size of some of the data files contained in 

 the system, the programs may seem relatively slow when first compared with 

 other software systems that you may be using. However, don't let the 

 apparent lack of speed fool you. The data comprising the Montana Rivers 

 Study is contained in several very large files. Some of the routines 

 use all of these files to gather the information that you request. 



1-1 



