DatabaseSystemConcepts Henry F. Korth and Abraham Silberschatz (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1986, 546 pp., $37.95) This book is an excellent introduction to database system concepts. In its fifteen chapters it covers data abstraction; data models, instances, and schemes; data independence; data definition language; data manipulation language; the database manager, administrator, and users; and overall database system structure. There are individual chapters on the four major data models: entity-relationship, relational, network, and hierarchical. There is also a chapter on the theory of relational database design, with normalization and data independence covered in detail. In the chapters on file and system structure, indexing and hashing, and query processing, the internal structure of database systems is explored. Crash recovery is the topic of Chapter i0, followed by chapters on such advanced topics as concurrency control, distributed databases, and security and integrity. Current trends such as knowledge bases are discussed in the chapter on new database applications. The last chapter gives case studies on the relational, network, hierarchical, and microcomputer database system, with at least two examples for each type of system. Each chapter has a summary of the important concepts and provides bibliographic notes. The author provides a bibliography for the whole text. This book can serve as an excellent text for a junior- or senior-level course introducing database concepts. Its wide spectrum of topics allows the instructor flexibility. It can also serve as a graduate-level text with suitable supplementary material. The student should have some exposure to set theory, logic, and discrete mathematics to feel comfortable in the section on formal query languages. Mathematical maturity would be helpful to appreciate the section on relational calculus. To handle the chapters on advanced topics, students should have some background on operating systems. This is one of the first books in the database area that is readable and interesting and has a broad range of topics. The order of presentation is both logical and pedagogically sound--and the book is sufficiently self-contained. Some of the strong points of this book are that the authors do not present too much of the nitty-gritty material, there are plenty of examples, each chapter has a good set of exercises, and there are a lot of proof-type problems in the chapter on database theory. No book is without typos. Some here are obvious, some not. I was disappointed that the authors did not mention database machines in the section on current trends. The section on knowledge databases should be expanded. To summarize, this is one of the best textbooks introducing database concepts. It presents a logical and excellent treatment of important topics in this area in both an interesting and readable manner. Grace C.N. Yeung California State University, Reprinted, with permission, Fresno from COMPUTER, Vol. 19, No. II, November, 1986.

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