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Data Dictionary:
A software module and database containing descriptions and definitions concerning the structure, data elements, interrelationships, and other characteristics of an organization’s databases.
Data Mining:
A process where data in a data warehouse is identified to discover key business trends and factors.
Data Modeling:
A process where the relationships between data elements are identified and defined to develop data models.
Data Planning:
A planning and analysis function focusing on data resource management which includes the responsibility of developing an overall information policy and data architecture for a company’s data resources.
Data Resource Management:
A managerial activity that applies information systems technology and management tools to the task of managing an organization’s data resources. Its three major components are database administration, data administration, and data planning.
Database Administration:
A data resource management function which includes responsibility for developing and maintaining the organization’s data dictionary, designing and monitoring the performance of databases, and enforcing standards for database use and security.
Database Administrator:
A specialist responsible for maintaining standards for the development, maintenance, and security of an organization’s databases.
Database Access - Direct:
A method of storage where each storage position has a unique address and can be individually accessed.
Database Access - Sequential:
A method of storing and retrieving data where records are organized in sequential order by some key field.
Database Management Approach:
An approach to the storage and processing of data in which independent files are consolidated into a common pool or database of records available to different application programs and end users for processing and data retrieval.
Database Management System (DBMS):
A set of computer programs that controls the creation, maintenance, and utilization of the databases of an organization.
Database Structure - Hierarchical:
A logical data structure in which the relationships between records form a hierarchy or tree structure. The relationships among records are one-to-many, since each data element is related only to one element above it.
Database Structure - Multidimensional:
A multidimensional database model uses multidimensional structures to store data and relationships between data.
Database Structure - Network:
A logical database structure that allows many-to-many relationships among data records.
Database Structure - Object-Oriented:
A logical database structure which uses objects as data elements, i.e. elements that include both data and the methods or processes that act on the data.
Database Structure - Relational:
A logical data structure in which all data elements within the database are viewed as being stored in the form of simple tables. DBMS packages based on the relational model can link data elements from various tables as long as the tables share common data elements.
DBMS uses:
Includes application development, database development, database interrogation, and database maintenance.
DBMS uses - Application Development:
Database management packages allow end users to develop personalized applications to enhance work activity.
DBMS uses - Database Development:
Database management packages allow end users to develop databases that they need.
DBMS uses - Database Interrogation:
End users can obtain information from a database using a query language or a report generator.
DBMS uses - Database Maintenance:
The databases of an organization need to be updated continually to reflect new business transactions and other events.
Key Field:
A field within a data record that is used to identify it or control its use.
Logical Data Elements:
Data elements that are independent of the physical data media on which they are recorded.
Logical Data Elements - Character:
The most basic logical data element which consists of a single alphabetic, numeric, or other symbol.
Logical Data Elements - Field:
A data element that consists of a grouping of characters that describe a particular attribute of an entity.
Logical Data Elements - Record:
A collection of related data fields treated as a unit.
Logical Data Elements- File:
A collection of related data records treated as a unit. Sometimes called a data set.
Logical Data Elements - Database:
A collection of logically related records or files. A database consolidates many records previously stored in separate files so that a common pool of data records serves many applications.
Metadata:
Data about data; data describing the structure, data elements, interrelationships, and other characteristics of a database.
Query Language:
A high-level human-like language provided by a database management system that enables users to easily extract data and information from a database.
Report Generator:
A feature of database management system packages which allows an end user to quickly specify a report format for the display of information retrieved from a database.
Types of Databases - Data Warehouse:
A central source of data that has been extracted from various organizational databases and standardized and integrated for use throughout an organization.
Types of Databases - Distributed:
The concept of distributing databases or portions of a database at remote sites where the data is more frequently referenced. Sharing of data is made possible through a network that interconnects the distributed databases.
Types of Databases - External:
Commercially operated databases that provide information for a fee and that can be accessed through wide area networks.
Types of Databases - Hypermedia:
A web site stores information in a hypermedia database consisting of a home page and other hyperlinked pages of multimedia or mixed media (text, graphics and photographic images, video clips, audio segments, and so on).
Types of Databases - Operational:
Databases that support the major business operations of an entire organization. Also called subject area databases, transaction databases, and production databases.
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