An End-User’s Guide to Data Base — James Martin, 1981 First Edition / First Printing | Vintage Computing

Published in 1981, An End-User’s Guide to Data Base is James Martin’s compact introduction to database concepts written specifically for people who would use computerized information systems rather than build them.

That distinction was significant in 1981. Databases were still largely associated with mainframes, specialist programmers, and corporate data-processing departments. Martin instead explains how databases could be organized around the needs of ordinary users, anticipating the broader movement toward accessible information systems, end-user computing, and modern self-service software.

The book covers database management, data modeling, user views, database design, query and data-base languages, and the relationship between centralized information and the different ways individual users need to access it. The illustrated diagrams are particularly evocative of early-1980s computing; one example depicts a central database feeding multiple individualized user views.

Despite its introductory purpose, this is a useful historical artifact from a formative period in database development, when relational databases were gaining traction but had not yet become the nearly universal model they are today.

Contemporary bibliographic records describe the book as a 144-page illustrated hardcover published by Prentice-Hall. A 1982 review in The Computer Journal recorded its original U.S. price as $21.95.

Author: James Martin
Publisher: Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Year: 1981
Edition: First Edition
Printing: First Printing — complete number line 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Format: Hardcover
Pages: xi + 144
ISBN: 0-13-277129-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-277129-0
LCCN: 80-27478

Condition:
Vintage ex-library hardcover without dust jacket. Dark blue boards show light surface rubbing, scratches, and edge wear. Former library call-number label remains on the front cover, with institutional stamps and handwritten catalog notation internally, including an Amoco Production Company Research Center Library stamp. Binding appears sound and pages shown are clean and legible with normal age toning. See photos for exact condition.