Database systems arose in response to early methods of computerized manage- ment of commercial data. As an example of such methods, typical of the 1960s, consider part of a university organization that, among other data, keeps infor- mation about all instructors, students, departments, and course offerings. One way to keep the information on a computer is to store it in operating system files. To allow users to manipulate the information, the system has a number of application programs that manipulate the files, including programs