If your organisation is large, it is usual to update your reader groups using an export from a centralised administration system export - such as a data file produced by SIMS in a primary school. Using the import reader facilities, it is then possible to selectively just update the class / tutor group rather than modify the entire reader record.

Sometimes however, possibly influenced by personal preference or very small numbers, or even a gradual update that has been presented to you during the year, it may be more efficient to simply move small groups manually (or even the entire organisation, for that matter).

The Manage Groups Layout can be divided into three main areas:

Updating your groups can be broken up into projects so that you do not need to update all of the readers at the same time, as well as being able to record reasons as to why certain updates are taking place. Before starting to record changes, you can select the appropriate project from this drop-down list.

The left hand side displays the current group allocations for each reader in your database. Initially this list is shown in group order, but you can reorder the list be clicking the header of any of the columns.

The right hand list displays all of the current groups in an hierarchical form (open the group using the [>] symbol on a Mac or the [+] symbol on Windows), as well as any new groups that you create using the [New Group] button at the bottom of this section.

Either select a group from the Project drop-down list, or click the [Create] toolbar icon to create a new project. If you are creating a new one, use a description which is informative regarding the reasons for this update - such as 'New Academic Year 2018'.

Once selected, a list of all readers are displayed in the left hand list.

If you need new groups, create them using the [New Group] button at the bottom of the page. It is important that your do not create them inside Pergamon at this stage, as new year groups may change before the year begins. Leave the management of these new groups to BISON.

Creating a new group here creates the new group ONLY for use within this project (they will only save into the project if you place at least one reader in it) and they will not become a real, working group until you [Execute] the project (see below), which may be in several months time if you are preparing your changes far in advance.

Remember that this step does not need to be performed strictly in this order - you can create a new group at any time, on-the-fly as you realise you need one while moving readers!

Select or multi-select readers in the left hand list (you can use the standard multi-select key options of SHIFT and CTRL to allow you to select different ranges with the mouse-click - experiment to see how this works on your operating system).

Once you have some selected, drag-and-drop the readers across to the new group in the right hand list. If the group is closed, you may not immediately see the change here (simply open the group to see the readers moved), but at the same time they will disappear from the left-hand list.

Gradually, as you assign more and more readers to their new groups, your left-hand list will decrease in size.

If your reader groups are mainly moving up together, the entire class at a time, this may even be a faster process than waiting for an update file from administration.

We recommend updating the project at regular intervals in case of external problems, such as power outage etc. Until you use the [Update] toolbar button, your changes are only shown on screen and are not stored in the database.

Remember that you do not need to complete the project in a single sitting - you can [Update] the current state of the project and return to it later if you are pressed for time, or are waiting on notification of additional changes etc. At a future time, just come back to the Reader Group Update utility, select the appropriate group and all of your changes will be displayed on screen - continue where you left off.

Note: Updating your changes in the project does not implement the changes for real in your live database. You can therefore prepare a project(s) months in advance and execute them all at a later date when they are needed!

The final stage in using your Reader Group Update project is to execute it. Up until this stage you have been recording changes that you want to take place, but they have not actually been implemented in the database for real.

When the time comes for your readers to move to their new groups, come to the Reader Group Update page and select the project required. With this project displayed, click the [Execute] toolbar button and confirm that you really wish to perform all of the changes.

It is also at this point that BISON will check the new groups that you created - if that group does not yet exist in the database, it will create it for you - as long as you have at least one reader in the new group, you do not need to create them manually in Pergamon.

Remember that once you have executed the project, the project will be made inactive and will will no longer be accessible through this facility.

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