Consider searching for information in a telephone book, an example of a printed database.
1. How easy is it to find say a plumber?
The white pages of a telephone book are arranged in alphabetical order, which is fine if you know exactly the name of the plumber you are looking for. The problem occurs when you don’t know the name. The white pages do not provide any other searching technique. You can of course use the yellow pages. First you go to the yellow pages index to find plumbers, then go to the relevant place in the telephone book and then start looking for plumbers in your area (if they exist). This can be both time consuming and frustrating (especially if you are looking for anything to do with the government).
2. How easy is it to find who lives at a particular address?
Very difficult. The only way you could find that information is to go through every entry looking for the address.
3. Can you see a problem with having both the white and yellow pages?
The telephone book is divided up into two sections (white and yellow pages), with duplicate entries in each. One of the big problems with data duplication is ensuring that the data in both sections is correct. If the telephone numbers for your plumber are different in each section, which one is right?
4. Does an electronic database, such as those provided online (e.g. www.whitepages.com.au) solve these issues?
In theory yes, in practice no. In theory using a DBMS would enable you to search for a plumber in your area, find who lives as a particular place and ensure that data was not duplicated. In practice, legislative constraints such as privacy laws or simply limitations in the implementation may mean these issues are not solved.