A "Wiki" Wacky View on the Database readings

Well, sports fans-


I have spent the last three days reading and re reading the Wikipedia information on databases. My eyes feel like the little bouncing balls of old time sing along songs - you remember, your grandmother's karaoke that they included in film shorts before television? No? Oh well, giving up the age again.


I did learn a lot more about databases, though. The biggest thing is how much we all seem to take them for granted.  Another surprising factoid is that the World Wide Web is a hypermedia database, which is viewed only one page at a time. AMAZING!


Let's get to some of the facts:


 A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes.  It is typically modeled after relevant aspects of reality in ways to support processes require the use of that particular information, and generally independent of the technology used.
  
They are managed by a database management system (or DBMS).  While there doesn't seem to be a universally accepted definition of what a DBMS is, most people seem to equate it with the term 'database'.  Some of the most popular DBMSs are Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and IBM DB2.   The tools to support these systems are a specialized programming languages, like data definition languages (DDL), data manipulation languages, and query languages.   One of the most popular formats is SQL, which was developed for relational data models. This was a point of real thought for me, because I read later in the piece that the computing systems couldn't handle the programming demands for more than 10 years later.  


I also discovered that a cloud database is where a DBMS and the its subsequent database is remotely accessed, while applications are developed by programmers and maintained and utilized by end users through browsers and Open APIs. ( Don't ask me what an Open API is. I will ask that tomorrow.)


Although I understood most of the concepts of the "entity-relationship model", the explanations and examples seemed circular and lost me. Another topic for discussion for tomorrow.  The knowledge base type of database is one that I felt should concern us most as librarians. This type of database is concerned with the collection, organization, and retrieval of knowledge.


There are a few more lessons I got from all of this, but I have got to get to some more reading for next week and another class.  So, until next Bat time...