Anbieter: Crappy Old Books, Barry, Vereinigtes Königreich
Paperback. Zustand: Fair. Data Base in Perspective (1980) by B. Davis . Published by the National Computing Centre . ISBN: 0850122198 . Condition: Good ? and ex-library , formerly on the shelves of the Institute of Electrical Engineers . As sold by Crappy Old Books , which is delightfully on-brand for a volume about orderly information that has itself been carefully catalogued, stamped, and marched through a system. First, a small historical thrill: it?s 1980, and ?data base? is still two words . The cloud is just weather. ?User experience? is not yet a profession. And the idea of putting all your organisation?s information into a structured system feels both daring and deeply sensible ? like proposing indoor plumbing to a village that?s doing fine with buckets, thanks. This is vintage institutional computing: calm, practical, and quietly convinced that if you can just get management to understand the concept, society will stop losing files and start making rational decisions. The National Computing Centre wasn?t in the business of vibes. This is Perspective ? a broad, structured explanation of what databases are, why they matter, and how organisations should think about them before they build something enormous, expensive, and powered entirely by misunderstandings. Reading it now is a special kind of comedy, because the problems are instantly familiar. Data quality. Ownership. Standards. Security. Design. ?Who?s allowed to change this field?? ?Why are there three different versions of the customer list?? ?Why does Geoff keep entering dates as 12/11/80 and insisting it?s obvious?? The tools have changed; the chaos is eternal. And the ex-library provenance is a treat. The Institute of Electrical Engineers didn?t keep books for decoration. This copy has lived a proper working life: borrowed, referenced, possibly consulted during a meeting where someone tried to justify a new system with the seriousness of a national infrastructure project. The stamps and markings aren?t damage ? they?re credentials . Proof that this book once belonged to the kind of environment where ?data integrity? could be discussed without irony. As a physical object it?s charmingly appropriate: a book about structured information that has itself been structured to within an inch of its life. You can practically hear the whisper of card indexes and feel the gentle authority of an accession number. Condition-wise it?s Good : solid, readable, and ready for another tour of duty. Expect the usual ex-library touches ? labels, stamps, maybe the odd pocket or trace thereof ? but nothing that stops it doing what it was born to do: explain, patiently, why your organisation needs to stop treating data like loose change in a drawer. Perfect for: collectors of early computing history and NCC publications, database people who enjoy origin stories, anyone who likes the quiet drama of pre-internet ?information systems? thinking, and readers who want to see how seriously we once approached the dream of making information behave. Buy it for the nostalgia. Buy it for the institutional vibe. Buy it because it?s oddly comforting to know that in 1980, clever people were already warning that data needs governance ? and we still, somehow, keep discovering this fresh every decade. A small, stamped, slightly stern artefact from the age of orderly ambition ? with just enough library bureaucracy baked in to make it feel wonderfully authentic. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 5774
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