Databases in the Classroom: History, Use and Creation
What do you want to keep track of and study? What information is important to analyzing and solving a problem? Databases are among the most common information management tools in existence,
whether manual (e.g., paper in a file drawer) or computerized. In a variety of
different forms from clay to paper to electronic, they have played a significant role in human history for
thousands of years. Today, any form
that you have ever completed is a record in a database, whether the data
is on a computer or not. Some databases are kept on personal computers for private use and others are made available for networked teams or for global use over the Net.
Databases build on the simplest of principles. A database is a collection of records. Each record is a form for data entry, a collection of field or category names and their associated data. Users of the database, whether
paper or computer, then must search the fields of these records to find
answers. Computerizing records and their fields makes it possible to handle
the sifting and questioning of the data in seconds instead of days, weeks,
and years. Database development needs to be seen in the context of a
broad range of composition tools. With the advent of computers and access to the
Internet, personal databases have also become a new and significant form
of composition and publication.
The History and Role of Databases
As our species made our world of information richer, it has also made
our world more complex. As interaction increases, better information handling is
critical to greater organizational capacity. 
The process begins not with a
technology but with a situation. As more and more data is gathered, some systematic
approach must be taken for the information to remain useful and for a larger
system to function. Far back into pre-history, growing business trade and ever
larger social organizations meant that a need emerged for better information
handling, both in terms of finding and recalling details and as a basis for
further planning. For example, over 5,000 years ago, the early Sumerian traders
invented cuneiform markings on clay tablets (picture on left; Google
image search ;
U.Penn Museum notes) to record business inventories. 
The Incas of
South America used a system of knots on strings, quipus (picture on right; Urton, 1998; Wikipedia, 2008),
to track harvest, spoils of war, and other accounting data. See picture on the right, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons. These symbol systems
for early databases were the necessary stimulus for the very creation of
alphabets and other systems of reading and writing words which came later.
This history shows that the invention of a database is a creative act of
composition that in turn supports higher levels of inquiry and composition. This pattern
continues into the present.
The major event in recent history that established the importance of automated databases
was
Herman
Hollerith's contract to complete the U.S. census of 1890 with a census tabulator that used punch cards with 12 rows by 20 columns of punch code locations. The image on the left is a partial view, showing just the first 10 columns but a click of the image will show the full card. Later modern
punch
cards extended the columns to 80. As punch cards became common, they also gained a negative impression as instruments of impersonal and uncaring leadership. Though the United States has a ten year span to collect
and organize its census data, it was reaching the point in 1890 that the
government feared it could no longer finish the analysis and report of the current census before
the following one was to begin in 1900. This time lag was due to the manual methods
of the day. Instead of taking over ten years for data entry, Hollerith's
invention completed the tabulating of the data in three months, allowing much
more time for analysis. Automating aspects of the census project provided
citizens with timely data from which they could ask basic questions about the
nature of the country and how plans should adapt to meet changing conditions. The census database is an example of how
databases provide us with a knowledge base from which to answer basic questions. Automated and much later computerized databases made it possible to ask questions
The famous U.S. historian Frederick Jackson Turner had created a report
based on the results of this same 1890 census noting that the frontier line of the American west
had disappeared. In one of the most influential writings in American history,
he developed his "frontier thesis" to explain the importance of the frontier to
the formation of American character and to explore how an open or
free and relatively unexplored place versus one that had become closed would
impact the character of the country. As brilliant as his analysis was, there
was a second development that he failed to see. This same punch card system
whose data analysis announced the closing of the American frontier in 1890 can simultaneously be seen as representing the opening of
a new frontier, data space, the global collection of information that would grow faster than
explorers could fully understand the data and map it. The conceptual idea of data space is synomous with the idea of cyberspace. The growth of data continues to outpace our ability to grow humans that can adequately analyze what we have. Said another way, Turner was wrong. The frontier never closed but the nature of the boundless frontier changed from a physical to a virtual frontier.
Through his emphasis on using
statistical data, Turner was also part of a group of historians "that
pioneered the notion that history is not just about telling stories, it is about
solving problems" (Cronon, 2004). In fact, instead of a contrast between
the story telling of literature and databases, these approaches can be seen as
different ways of both story telling and problem solving. This increasing
accent on the phrase "problem solving" is as important to database development
as the technology that enabled ever larger database designs.
This establishment of a radical new system for collecting what was then an
enormous amount of information created a design that could build new virtual
spaces which needed exploring, mapping and settling. Punch card technology
ruled this database development for decades. Early computer technology of the
1950's did not
immediately end punch card technology, but rather worked seamlessly with it
well into the 1980's, using punch cards for the input of quantities of
database information into the computer for further analysis. In comparison
with current databases, those early punch card databases, created by corporation and government operations before computers were invented, were the
first foothills in cyberspace in comparison to the snow capped mountain range
sized databases of the twenty-first century.
Exploring the development of databases such as the census database leads
to numerous discoveries in content and technology. To use census data to
ask questions about the past use the United
States Historical Census Browser (1790 to 1970) , but for more current
analysis use the tools provided by the
U.S. Census Bureau's site. Herman Hollerith's business, The Computer
Tabulating Recording Company, that emerged from the punch-card
based census effort in 1890, changed its name in 1924 to International Business Machines,
more commonly known today as IBM.
The trend towards solving problems by analysis and by other thinking skills
by creating ever larger databases has continued unabated since 1890. 
For
example, in 1998 IBM produced the database that handled the largest information
collections in the world, DB2. According to the Winter
Corporation Survey, four of the world's five largest databases in the
world ran DB2, and six of the top ten database systems used IBM hardware.
The largest of these was IBM's web-enabled Patent
Server which contained 1.5 TeraBytes of compressed data and over 15
TeraBytes of uncompressed data. This system has been in use 24 hours a
day since April, 1997. Through this database users access over 26 years
of U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) patent descriptions including
the last 23 years of images. With this system users can search, retrieve
and study over two million patents beginning with entries that started
January 5, 1971. The 2001
winners ranged from 2.3 to 10.3 terabytes. The top ten in 2003 had
databases that ranged in size from 9 to 29 terabytes and in 2005, the largest was over 100 terabytes. Consistent with
earlier projections about computer developments in chapter one, there is
geometric growth in capacity here as well.
The size and power of databases also has led to political debates over what should go in them and who should have access. For example, the National Security Agency has collected phone call records seeking a "record of every call ever made" in the U.S.A. (Cauley, 2006).
All of the accessible information on planet earth can be viewed as a
giant pyramid of databases. 
Each higher layer in the pyramid represented
a higher quality level of information. Each higher layer also represents
a lower quantity of information. The CROP
site's information pyramid places databases of people and organizations
at the peak of the world's information systems, representing the highest
form of distilled intelligence. To find the right expert that is available
to help with a particular question is the most dramatic step possible in
finding information. Each layer under that peak represents collections
of information which involve lesser applications of human intelligence
in analyzing the currency, accuracy and relevance of the data. The universal
online accessibility of these databases allows them to play an increasingly
critical role in learning and study at all levels of our educational system.
Each of these globally available databases generally started as an individual's
personal database of information useful to that person or their organization.
Learning to use and create your own personal databases has become a basic
part of everyday computer use. The resources below will help you become
empowered to manage your own databases on your own computer. In time, the
seemingly insignificant database that you start may hold key data to a
question that thousands around the world are asking.
Basic Types of Current Databases
-
Flat File - (e.g., Appleworks, Clarisworks, Microsoft Works). A flat file
database works with one set of database records at a time.
-
Relational - (e.g., FilemakerPro or Microsoft Access). A relational database
interconnects different sets of database records, so that a search in one
database will retrieve records with links to data in other sets of database
records.
Unique Features of Databases
Mail Merge is one of the more valuable database features. Most current
databases today provides some way to create form letters by merging (inserting)
fields of information from database or spreadsheet records into variables in
other applications such as word processing, publishing or email applications.
More recently, database vendors have also included Web server capacity
into the database which makes it possible to make a database accessible
over the Internet. One merely has to click the right commands to give permission
for a database to be searched and read or even modified by remote users.
Filemaker Pro by Filemaker Pro, Inc. and Access by Microsoft are two common
examples. These more sophisticated databases can import data from other
databases such as Appleworks, Clarisworks and Microsoft Works.
Criteria for Selecting Databases
Beyond cost, ease of learning and ease of use are major concerns, especially
when public school students are asked to use and create databases. Consider
how well supported the database is. Given the possible complexity of databases,
look for database software companies that provide an 800# for technical
support and consider whether there are others in your workplace already
using a database application who can help coach you in its use. Further
criteria are explored in the review section below.
Reviews of Common Databases in Use Today
Bibliography
-- (February 15, 2007). Top 10 Largest Databases in the World. Businesss Intelligene Lowdown. Availablle March 29, 2008 at http://www.businessintelligencelowdown.com/2007/02/top_10_largest_.html
Cauley, Leslie (May 11, 2006). NSA has massive database of Amerians' phone calls. USA oday. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm
New River Media Interview with: William Cronon,
available February 25, 2004 at
http://www.pbs.org/fmc/interviews/cronon.htm
Quipu, Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu
Urton, Gary (1998). "From Knots to Narratives: Reconstructing the Art of Historical Record Keeping in the Andes from Spanish Transcriptions of Inka Khipus". Ethnohistory 45 (5): pp.409-438. doi:10.2307/483319. ISSN 0014-1801.
Address of this Web Page: http://www.ceap.wcu.edu/Houghton/EDELCompEduc/Themes/databases/databaseconcepts.html
[Pageauthor Houghton]
Dr. Robert S. Houghton, Copyright, 1997-present. Updated March 29, 2008
