<s>
Data	B-General_Concept
access	I-General_Concept
is	O
a	O
generic	O
term	O
referring	O
to	O
a	O
process	O
which	O
has	O
both	O
an	O
IT-specific	O
meaning	O
and	O
other	O
connotations	O
involving	O
access	O
rights	O
in	O
a	O
broader	O
legal	O
and/or	O
political	O
sense	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
the	O
former	O
it	O
typically	O
refers	O
to	O
software	O
and	O
activities	O
related	O
to	O
storing	O
,	O
retrieving	O
,	O
or	O
acting	O
on	O
data	O
housed	O
in	O
a	O
database	O
or	O
other	O
repository	B-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
Two	O
fundamental	O
types	O
of	O
data	B-General_Concept
access	I-General_Concept
exist	O
:	O
</s>
<s>
Data	B-General_Concept
access	I-General_Concept
crucially	O
involves	O
authorization	O
to	O
access	O
different	O
data	O
repositories	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Data	B-General_Concept
access	I-General_Concept
can	O
help	O
distinguish	O
the	O
abilities	O
of	O
administrators	O
and	O
users	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Historically	O
,	O
each	O
repository	B-Protocol
(	O
including	O
each	O
different	O
database	O
,	O
file	B-Application
system	I-Application
,	O
etc	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
)	O
,	O
might	O
require	O
the	O
use	O
of	O
different	O
methods	B-Language
and	O
languages	O
,	O
and	O
many	O
of	O
these	O
repositories	O
stored	O
their	O
content	O
in	O
different	O
and	O
incompatible	O
formats	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Over	O
the	O
years	O
standardized	O
languages	O
,	O
methods	B-Language
,	O
and	O
formats	O
,	O
have	O
developed	O
to	O
serve	O
as	O
interfaces	O
between	O
the	O
often	O
proprietary	O
,	O
and	O
always	O
idiosyncratic	O
,	O
specific	O
languages	O
and	O
methods	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
Such	O
standards	O
include	O
SQL	B-Language
(	O
1974	O
-	O
)	O
,	O
ODBC	B-Application
(	O
ca	O
1990	O
-	O
)	O
,	O
JDBC	B-Language
,	O
XQJ	B-Language
,	O
ADO.NET	B-Device
,	O
XML	B-Protocol
,	O
XQuery	B-Language
,	O
XPath	B-Language
(	O
1999	O
-	O
)	O
,	O
and	O
Web	O
Services	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Some	O
of	O
these	O
standards	O
enable	O
translation	O
of	O
data	O
from	O
unstructured	B-Application
(	O
such	O
as	O
HTML	O
or	O
free-text	O
files	O
)	O
to	O
structured	B-Application
(	O
such	O
as	O
XML	B-Protocol
or	O
SQL	B-Language
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
can	O
attempt	O
to	O
standardise	O
methods	B-Language
of	O
connecting	B-General_Concept
to	I-General_Concept
databases	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
