Ask Adrienne: Less clickety clicks, enrichment dropdown menus, and lists that last!

We have been busy making ZIMS better by building small changes to make your data entry go faster! Here are some of the most recent enhancements to ZIMS for Husbandry, all of which are designed to save you time and make records entry more efficient.

Less Clickity Clicks!

Editing your data now takes one less click each time! When you select to View/Edit a piece of data, ZIMS will look at your Role access and save you a click. If you have access to Edit that piece of information, the Edit screen will immediately appear; you do not need to click through the View screen first. If you have View rights only, the View screen will appear with no option to Edit.

Enrichment “dropdown” menu.

Enrichment is a high priority for the animals in your care. It is now even easier to Assign Enrichment Items! The Enrichment Item dropdown menu is now a multiple select list of all the items available for the animal in focus. Select all the appropriate items to assign them quickly. And remember: the Enrichment Goal should be the same for all the selected items. If it is different, they should be assigned individually.

Lists That Last!

When an animal is dispositioned or dies, you now have the option to have ZIMS automatically remove the individual from any Animal Lists. Why not always do this? Because you may need the List as created to record historical data, ZIMS is preset to allow the animal to remain on Lists. With the new option, ZIMS enables you to choose the approach that works best for your institution.

Here’s how to have ZIMS automatically remove the animal from Lists:

Go to Institution Preferences (this is not available as a My Preference) > Application Preferences > Animal Lists and check the “Enable auto-update of Animal Lists upon disposition” box. Before you check this it is recommended that you review your Animal Lists and remove any animals that have died or been dispositioned as checking the box will not remove any past dispositions, it is only going forward.When an animal is dispositioned or does, you now have the option to have the individual automatically removed from any Animal Lists.

We hope these changes have helped your data entry go quicker. We’d love to hear your feedback! Email us at Support@Species360.org