Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network


Viewing the Monitoring Database

A link is provided from the main data entry and viewing page to the central database of IBMN monitoring data. This database contains all the IBMN monitoring data. It provides the ability to search for data using different fields and to sort that data in many ways.

Searching for Data

This is an example of how to view the data for a particular site and year. The data website has the capability to search based on many different criteria. After working through this example, you should find it fairly easy to modify the search criteria to create new requests.

  1. Open the link to the site for viewing the database of monitoring data.
  2. You will then be asked for a password. Leave the user field blank, and use the password "ibmn".
  3. On the page that opens, click on the magnifying glass icon in the upper right corner of the left column.
  4. The form which appears on the right side of the page is where you enter the criteria for the search. The form is like a template, and the search will find all records that match that template.
  5. To search for all records for a site, select the site from the pull down menu.
  6. If you want the records for only one year, enter the year in the "Visit Year" field, for example 2003.
  7. Click on the "Perform Find" button to perform your search.
  8. Click on the right side of the picture of the open book to move forward through the search results and the left side to move backward.
  9. If you need further help, click on the question mark on the right side of the second row of the left column.

Sorting Data

Once the system returns the search results, you can further sort them if you wish.

  1. To sort the records, on the page with the results, click on icon which is third from the right, in the third row, of the left hand column. It has an A over Z.
  2. That will open a new window with the sort criteria.
  3. Select the fields on which you want to sort in the left window and move them into the right window.
  4. Select the button for ascending or descending order.
  5. Click on the "Sort" button.

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