Editing Data bank

{{Short description|High-volume, widespread organized collection of data}}
{{Merge to|Database|discuss=Talk:Database#Proposed merge of Data bank into Database|date=May 2025}}
In [[database management]] and [[information architecture]], a '''data bank''' or '''databank''' is a repository of information about one or more subjects, that is, a [[database]] which is organized in a way that facilitates local or remote information retrieval and is able to process many continual queries over a long period of time. 
A ''data bank'' may also refer to an organization primarily concerned with the construction and maintenance of such a database. 

A data bank may be either centralized or decentralized, though most usage of this term refers to centralized storage and retrieval of information, by way of analogy to a monetary [[bank]]. The [[data]] in a data bank can be anything from scientific information like global temperature readings, and governmental information like census statistics, to financial-system records like credit card transactions, or the inventory available from various suppliers.  

In [[computing]], the term ''databank'' is also obsolete (1960s through 1970s) [[computer jargon]] for ''[[database]]'' itself, and is frequently used in that sense in materials written during the same time period.

== See also ==
* [[Data repository]]
* [[List of databases]]
* [[Star Wars Databank]]
* [[Protein Data Bank]]
* [[National Trauma Data Bank]]
* [[Memory bank]]
* [[International Tree-Ring Data Bank]]
* [[Hazardous Substances Data Bank]]
* [[Electron microscopy data bank]]
* [[Dortmund Data Bank]]
* [[Casio Databank]]
* [[Conformational dynamics data bank]]
* [[Databank Systems]] {{mdash}} a former New Zealand banking agency

==Sources==
*{{FS1037C MS188}}
*''[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]], Fourth Edition''. [[Houghton Mifflin]], 2000.

==External links==
{{wiktionary}}

[[Category:Data management]]
[[Category:Information architecture]]


{{telecomm-stub}}