SELECTED REFERENCES ON DATABASE-MANAGEMENT TOPICS
GUIDES TO PARTICULAR DATABASE-MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (DBMSs)
askSam
Aerts, Kay. Step by Step with askSam. 235 p. Perry, FL: Aerts Publishing; 1993. [Treats askSam for DOS, although the current version of askSam is Windows-based. The book has no ISBN. The address of the publisher is: 2628 Crooked Creek, Perry, FL 32347.]
dBASE IV for DOS
Beiser, Karl. Essential Guide to dBASE IV in Libraries. 365 p. Westport, CT: Meckler; 1991. ISBN:0-88736-530-2. [Provides a number of dBASE IV programs for performing library functions.]
Microsoft Access 2000 (and Access 97)
Cassel, Paul; Palmer, Pamela. Sams Teach Yourself MicrosoftAccess 2000 in 21 Days. 785 p. Indianapolis, IN: Sams; 1999. ISBN:0-672-31292-1.
Gifford, Dwayne; et al. Access 97 Unleashed. 2nd edition. 1,082 p. Indianapolis, IN: Sams; 1997. ISBN:0-672-30983-1.
Jennings, Roger. Special Edition Using Access 2000. 1,296 p. Indianapolis, IN: Que; 1999. ISBN:0-7897-1606-2.
Litwin, Paul; Getz, Ken; Gilbert, Mike. Access 97 Developer's Handbook. 1,544 p. San Francisco, CA: Sybex; 1997. ISBN:0-7821-1941-7. [Treats the development of professional-level applications using Access, with many examples of code.]
Note: A useful source of information on building applications using Microsoft Access is a World-Wide Web discussion forum maintained by the Microsoft Access Help Centre, a U.K. company, whose Website also provides other Access help, such as "Hints and Tips".*
Oracle
Koch, George; Loney, Kevin. ORACLE: The Complete Reference, Third Edition. 1,066 p. Berkeley, CA: Osborne McGraw-Hill; 1995. ISBN:0-07-882097-9.
Whalen, Ed; DeLuca, Steve A.. Teach Yourself Oracle 8 in 21 Days. 604 p. Indianapolis, IN: Sams; 1998. ISBN:0-672-31159-3.
BOOKS ON GENERAL TOPICS IN DATABASE MANAGEMENT
Databases and the Internet
Hobuss, James J. Building Access Web Sites. 481 p. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall; 1998. ISBN:0-13-079830-4. [More readable than the Khurana and Khurana book. Includes CD-ROM with various utilities helpful in building Web databases.]
Khurana, Gunnit S.; Khurana, Balbir S. Web Database Construction Kit: A Step-By-Step Guide to Linking Microsoft Access Databases to the Web, Using Visual Basic and the Included WebSite 1.1 Web Server. 662 p. Corte Madera, CA: Waite Group; 1996. ISBN:1-57169-032-8. [Includes CD-ROM of programs for Windows 95 and Windows NT. The programs include exercises, HTML editors, files to help the writing of CGI programs, and an evaluation copy of a Web server.]
Lang, Curt; Chow, Jeff. Database Publishing on the Web and Intranets. 510 p. Scottsdale, AZ: Coriolis Group; 1996. ISBN:1-883577-85-3. [Includes CD-ROM of Windows NT-based programs.]
Mohseni, Piroz. Web Database Primer Plus: Connect Your Database to the World Wide Web Using HTML, CGI, and Java. 482 p. Corte Madera, CA: Waite Group; 1996. ISBN:1-57169-070-0. [Includes CD-ROM of programs for Windows 95 and Windows NT. The programs include an HTML editor, files to help the writing of CGI programs, a Java Developer's Kit for Windows 95/NT, and two Web servers.]
Swank, Mark; Kittel, Drew. World-Wide Web Database Developer's Guide. 782 p. Indianapolis, IN: Sams; 1996. ISBN:1-57521-048-7. [Includes CD-ROM of programs for Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows NT.]
Library Cataloging and Database Management
Clark, David L. Database Design: Applications of Library Cataloging Techniques. 330 p. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 1991. ISBN:0-8306-3443-6. [A close look at how to use databases to handle library cataloging data, including MARC data and Library of Congress Subject Headings.]
Object-Oriented Databases
Cattell, Roderic G. G. Object Data Management: Object-Oriented and Extended Relational Database Systems. 318 p. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley; 1991. ISBN:0-201-53092-9.
Stonebraker, Michael. Object-Relational Databases: The Next Great Wave. 216 p. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann; 1996. ISBN:1-55860-397-2.
Relational Databases
Date, C. J. Database: A Primer. 266 p. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley; 1983. ISBN: 0-201-11358-9. [Shows its age in terms of the software (e.g., dBASE II) discussed, but remains an excellent, concise, clear presentation of the basic ideas of relational databases.]
Date, C. J. Relational Database: Selected Writings. 497 p. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley; 1986. ISBN:0-201-14196-5. [This and the following two books by C. J. Date are collections of his writings, plus a few papers by others, exploring many aspects of relational databases. In all three books, the papers tend to be quite detailed but are written in clear language with a strong pragmatic orientation.]
Date, C. J. Relational Database Writings: 1985-1989. 528 p. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley; 1990. ISBN:0-201-50881-8.
Date, C. J., with Darwen, H. Relational Database Writings: 1989-1991. 521 p. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley; 1992. ISBN:0-201-54303-6.
Hansen, Gary W.; Hansen, James V. Database Management and Design. 548 p. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall; 1992. ISBN: 0-13-200759-2.
Hernandez, Michael J. Database Design for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Relational Database Design. 440 p. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley; 1997. ISBN:0-201-69471-9. [I consider this book to be a particularly good overview of its topic.]
Kroenke, David M. Database Processing: Fundamentals, Design, Implementation. 6th ed. 628 p. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall; 1997. ISBN: 0-13-737842-4.
Pascal, Fabian. Understanding Relational Databases with Examples in SQL-92. 278 p. New York, NY: Wiley; 1993. ISBN:0-471-58538-6.
Rob, Peter; Coronel, Carlos. Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management. 3rd edition. Cambridge, MA: Course Technology; 1997. 848 p. ISBN:0-7600-4604-1.
SQL
Bowman, Judith S.; Emerson, Sandra L.; Darnovsky, Marcy. The Practical SQL Handbook: Using Structured Query Language. 3rd edition. 454 p. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley; 1996. ISBN:0-201-44787-8. [A good explanation of, and reference for, SQL.]
Gruber, Martin. Understanding SQL. 434 p. San Francisco, CA: Sybex; 1990. ISBN:0-89588-644-8.
Hursch, Carolyn J.; Hursch, Jack L. SQL: The Structured Query Language. 184 p. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Tab Books; 1988. ISBN:0-8306-3016-3.
Stephens, Ryan K.; Plew, Ronald R.; Morgan, Bryan; Perkins, Jeff. Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days. 2d ed. 624 p. Indianapolis, IN: Sams; 1997. ISBN:0-672-31110-0.
Text-Oriented Database Management
Meadow, Charles T. Text Information Retrieval Systems. 2nd ed. 364 p. San Diego, CA: Academic Press: 1999. ISBN:0-12-487405-3. [The classic work on the subject, first published in 1992 and updated in 1999.]
Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications
McFedries, Paul. Visual Basic for Applications Unleashed. 1,000 p. Indianapolis, IN: Sams; 1997. ISBN:0-672-31046-5. [Visual Basic for Applications is a programming language that is a close sibling to Visual Basic. VBA is used for internal operations in many Microsoft software systems, including Microsoft Access 95 and 97.]
McKelvy, Mike; Siler, Brian; Spotts, Brian. Special Edition Using Visual Basic 5. Second Edition. 1,058 p. Indianapolis, IN: Que; 1997. ISBN:0-7897-1288-1. [Visual Basic is a programming language specially tailored for developing Windows 95 and Windows NT applications.]
Smith, Robert; Sussman, David. Beginning Access 97 VBA Programming. 614 p. Birmingham, UK: Wrox; 1997. ISBN:1-861000-86-3. [Includes a CD-ROM with utilities and sample databases.]
ISO REFERENCE MODEL FOR OPEN SYSTEMS INTERCONNECTION (OSI)
The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) movement is an important current thrust in the world of computers and computing. Its goal is to provide standards to which all computer hardware and software vendors will adhere, so that the present multiplicity of interconnection and interface practices can be reduced, thus reducing the costs of designing and producing both hardware and software. The U.S. government, through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; formerly, the National Bureau of Standards), and many states, including Texas, back the OSI movement through contractual policies and legislation. A non-profit corporation, the Corporation for Open Systems (8260 Willow Oaks Corporate Dr., Suite 700, Fairfax, VA 22031; 703-205-2700), represents business interests in the OSI movement in the U.S.
The seven levels at which standards have been, or are being, developed are the following:
Level 7: Application layer. Deals with the interface between a user and the host computer: e.g., WordPerfect translating a signal, initiated by the user's typing in a string of characters and then depressing the "Search" function key, into instructions to DOS (or System 7) to try to find that string in a file.
Level 6: Presentation layer. Deals with syntactic representation of data: e.g., agreement on character code (e.g., ASCII, extensions to ASCII), data-compression and data-encryption methods, representations of graphics (e.g., files using the .PIC or .BMP formats).
Level 5: Session layer. Deals with creating and managing sessions when one application process requests access to another applications process (e.g., WordPerfect importing data from Lotus 1-2-3).
Level 4: Transport layer. Deals with data transfer between end systems; flow control for two computers (e.g., how ProComm Plus on your PC talks with UTCAT on the UT-Austin Data Processing computer system).
Level 3: Network layer. Deals with establishing paths for data between a pair of computers and handling any switching among alternative routes between the computers, as well as with definitions of how to break files (or messages) up into individual packets of data, in such a way that the packets can be transmitted and then reassembled.
Level 2: Data-link layer. Deals with the transmission of data frames (e.g., packets) over a physical link between network entities, including the incorporation of error-correction coding into the data frames.
Level 1: Physical layer. Deals with the physical (i.e., electrical and mechanical) aspects of transmitting data (e.g., voltage levels, pin-connector design, cable lengths, and grounding arrangements).
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Level 7: Application Layer |
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Level 6: Presentation Layer |
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Level 5: Session Layer |
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Level 4: Transport Layer |
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Level 3: Network Layer |
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Level 2: Data-Link Layer |
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Level 1: Physical Layer |
WORLD-WIDE WEB URLs FOR STANDARDS ORGANIZATIONS CONCERNED WITH DATABASES
ANSI American National Standards Institute
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
ISO International Organization for Standardization
ISO/IEC JTC1 Joint Technical Committee number 1
NCITS National Committee for Information Technology Standards [formerly known as "X3"]
NISO National Information Standards Organization [part of American National Standards Institute]
NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology
ODMG Object Database Management Group
Open Group [formerly X/Open and Open Software Foundation]
*My thanks go to Ms. Jennifer Serieyssol-Moyer for finding this source of information about Microsoft Access.
Go to Guide to Course Materials for LIS 384K.11.
Go to Wyllys Webpage.
Last revised 2004 Feb 23