In
database management and
information architecture, a data bank or databank is a repository of information about one or more subjects, that is, a
database which is organized in a way that facilitates local or remote information retrieval and is able to process many continual queries over a long period of time.
A ''data bank'' may also refer to an organization primarily concerned with the construction and maintenance of such a database.
A data bank may be either centralized or decentralized, though most usage of this term refers to centralized storage and retrieval of information, by way of analogy to a monetary
bank. The
data in a data bank can be anything from scientific information like global temperature readings, and governmental information like census statistics, to financial-system records like credit card transactions, or the inventory available from various suppliers.
In
computing, the term ''databank'' is also obsolete (1960s through 1970s)
computer jargon for ''
database'' itself, and is frequently used in that sense in materials written during the same time period.
See also
*
Data repository
*
List of databases
This is a list of lists of databases or databanks:
*List of academic databases and search engines
*List of biodiversity databases
*List of biological databases
*List of chemical databases
*List of Drosophila databases
*List of genealogy database ...
*
Star Wars Databank
The ''Star Wars'' Databank is the official ''Star Wars'' website's reference guide to elements such as characters, locations and technology included in the franchise's canon films and television series.
Before the canon restructuring in 2014, eac ...
*
Protein Data Bank
*
National Trauma Data Bank
*
Memory bank
*
International Tree-Ring Data Bank
*
Hazardous Substances Data Bank
*
Electron microscopy data bank
*
Dortmund Data Bank
The Dortmund Data Bank (short DDB) is a factual data bank for thermodynamic and thermophysical data. Its main usage is the data supply for process simulation where experimental data are the basis for the design, analysis, synthesis, and optimizati ...
*
Casio Databank
*
Conformational dynamics data bank
*
Databank Systems Limited a former New Zealand banking agency
Sources
*
*''
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition''.
Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
External links
Data management
Information architecture
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