Blog Entry #8

Data: facts, figures, and symbols, especially as stored in computers (The Hutchinson Dictionary of Computing and the Internet)

Data mining: the process of finding patterns in information contained in large databases (Encyclopedia of Computer Science)

Data structure: loosely, a structure whose components are data objects; a collection of data values, the relationships among them, and the functions or operations that can be applied to the data (Encyclopedia of Computer Science)

Database: a system that allows for the efficient storage and retrieval of information (Ramsay, “Databases,” p. 177); structured collection of data, which may be manipulated to select and sort desired items of information (The Hutchinson Dictionary of Computing and the Internet)

Database management system: system for quick search and retrieval of information from a database; determines how data are stored and retrieved (Britannica Concise Encyclopedia)

Digital object: a re-presentation or an artefact of an earlier act of knowledge performance/production (texts, photos, videos, maps, etc.) (Christie, “Computer Databases and Aboriginal Knowledge, p.1)

Query: questions asked of the database (The Hutchinson Dictionary of Computing and the Internet)

Relational database: data are viewed as a collection of linked tables (The Hutchinson Dictionary of Computing and the Internet)

Relational database management system: data are organized into a series of tables (“relations”) that are easily reorganized for accessing data in different ways (Britannica Concise Encyclopedia)