Data Base Design for Information Retrieval

The literature on database design most often deals with processes for well-structured organizations. In contrast, this book provides a step-by-step approach to the development of the conceptual scheme for systems that do not yet exist, and in which the process of information flow has not been worked out. It shows how to analyze data that at first seems chaotic and disorganized to achieve a highly structured, useful data representation: a data dictionary. Using the entity-relationship model, it gives thorough instructions on procedures for integrating individual sections, or individual databases, into a coherent system. To prepare for data collection, it demonstrates how to establish a system of rules that determine the representation of each item so that conflicts between data as they appear in the real world and as they should be recorded in the database are resolved. Also offered is a set of criteria for evaluating the database scheme.