Microsoft Access
Access is the Microsoft Office relational database program.
A database is a way of collecting and storing information in a logical
way; for example an address book in alphabetical order. Computer
databases allow you to create tables to store information, each record
(set of intformation) is broken up into fields (small pieces of data)
this makes it easy to reorganise the information, for example from
alphabetical order to date order of a different field. Databases can
also link more than one set of information together by using several
tables; for example a simple library database may have tables for the
library users, the books and a table to record which books have been
taken out of the library and when they are due to be returned.
The information can also be filtered to show records of one type and
more complex searches can be carried out to find answers to specific
questions like what are the phone numbers of all of the library users
who have overdue books, or which users have taken out the maximum
number of books this week.
Computer databases can be set up to allow novice users to quickly enter
data ans search for information while checking to make sure that
they are entering the correct sort of information in each field in the
database.
You may not realise it but many website you visit are databases that allow you to search for information
- Streetmap.co.uk a database of place names, postcodes, grid references and pictures of maps at different scales.
- Yell.com a database of companies names, addresses phone numebrs and type of business