Book excerpt: A guide for users and designers of database systems. Outlines the inherent problems in the study, design, and implementation, and examines the background issues of priorities, administrative prerequisites, design concepts, database management systems, protocols, security, communication processes, and interactivity. Gives advice on developing corporate databases and management sytems. Non- technical, user-oriented text. No bibliography. Date provides a comprehensive treatment of standard SQL, with many worked examples while discussing some of the implications of the standard. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR