The repository model can easily be combined with other models. For example, if we go
further with the library example, we could easily design something very similar to the
events standard. Think, for instance, that the books described above are located in a library
that loans these materials to library members. In order to do so, library members would
constitute another entity with properties such as id, sex, age, email, telephone and
educational level. The other main entity would be the loan itself, described with properties
such as the loan period, the permission to take the material to home or to read at the
library, etc.
This library loan structure could be summarized in the sentence: What do we loan to who?,
similar to the event standard. A similar structure is used in many shops to register
customers, orders and products: Who ordered what? Or What do we sell to who?
Track complaints data model
Complaint reception and management is a recurring task for national and international
institutions in the human rights field. Data models for tracking complaints are essentially
based in the stages of the complaint handling process.
This case study covers the development of an information system to handle victim’s
complaints at a human rights organization. It shows how information needs were identified
for a specific project and how they were converted into technical requirements for the
database, including the data structure reflected in the data model.
Monitoring judicial response data model
Similar to the previous case, monitoring judicial response demands a model that covers the
different stages of the judicial process and also includes a comprehensive description of
relevant entities such as judicial instances.
The SUMMA database, created by the Center for Justice and International Law and
explained in detail in this case study, constitutes a good example of how information
should be registered and structured to facilitate its retrieval by users and how to provide
aggregated information regarding cases.
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