History of Database Technology Past and Present The term database became popular with the growth of the computer industry and is generally thought of as software used to store, index, manipulate, and retrieve information (Vaughn ). Database software has been in use since the Census Bureau used a punch card system to meet the requirements for collecting, sorting, and reporting data for the 1890 census (National Research Council). These early databases were flat file databases. The flat-file style of database works well for small amounts of data that need to be organized to be read and edited manually. Flat file databases consist of tables that store a certain number of characters in each field. The individual tables are not linked and are difficult to search and navigate. To view a particular record in a flat file database, the end user would have to sequentially navigate through all the records preceding it. Furthermore, the system itself does not detect when a file is used or modified. Therefore, if two or more users access the data at the same time, it is possible that the data will be deleted by multiple processes simultaneously fighting to save new data. Although flat file databases are still in use today, they are not commonly used to store large amounts of compact data, due to the propensity for data corruption and the inherent difficulties in accessing records (Wise). In 1970, Edgar Codd wrote several articles theoretically outlining a new approach to database construction that would use a table of records and a unique identifier called a "key" to search for related records within the table. Codd demonstrated that such a system could deliver data sets in a single operation without the need for end-user navigation required by previous flat file models. Codd's theory led to the introduction of relational database management systems. Relational databases organize information into multiple tables that are linked together and include built-in functions that allow them to retrieve, sort, and modify data in numerous ways. Instead of duplicating records in each table, data can be stored in one table and simply linked to other tables that may use it. Additionally, data retrieval speed is increased by a relational system's ability to access any linked table with a single connection instead of requiring multiple tables to be opened for data extraction (Wise).