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Information systems have evolved from simple file processing systems to powerful database systems. Relational Databases put the layout and form into the unchanging metadata and gave us record once systems. Unfortunately, the real world upon which databases are modelled constantly changes. These changes may affect the schema for a variety of reasons. Different formalisms have been developed to deal with schema changes aiming to preserve information capacity and semantic correctness. Schematic conflicts occur which must be resolved. Data integration or conversion remains a partially resolved issue. This book introduces a three-level architecture for RDMS with an interface, named the mesodata layer, between data and metadata for complex domains. The mesodata layer provides complex structures in which to store domain values and their inter-relationships as well as supplying the intelligence required to manipulate them. The domain structures enable different orderings for enhanced querying and information retrieval. This approach should interest database modellers who manage changes to a database, such as structural change, semantic change and constraint change.

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Dr Denise de Vries, PhD, BSc(hons), BCompInfSc, has, since the early 1980s, developed complex database systems for a variety of industry domains. Based on this industry experience she researches complex domain modelling related to data mining, knowledge management and schema evolution. Lecturer in Computer Science at Flinders University, Adelaide.

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