Databases

Katherine Y. Barnes

Compilations of data have become ubiquitous in this information age. Databases make these masses of information tractable. Speaking broadly, a database is any electronic compilation of information in machinereadable format. Two features characterize databases: the ability to query and summarize the data and the ability to link data within the database and across databases in a variety of ways. Because databases allow an individual to obtain relevant information from a huge mass of data, scholars use them for a wide variety of reasons: to look up individuals, find a disease based on particular symptoms, or perform statistical analyses of data. It is this last use of databases that has ...

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