n.a digital repository that holds integrated sets of tabular data collected from a variety of sources, which are used to discover trends and correlations within the dataWallace 1993a, 94Discussions on the data warehouse, an accumulation of integrated, subject-oriented databases created to assist managerial decisions, explicitly address the benefits of metadata in a manner familiar to archivists. In this environment metadata is used to control externally-generated, unstructured data within the warehouse.Cain 1995, 168The data warehouse architecture separates the storage of data in operational databases used for short term, transactional purposes from data to be used by management for decision making (the data warehouse).Kesner 1998, 79Within this design, current data might reside in a database referred to as an operational data store (ODS) for fast access, while longitudinal data will reside within a historical data warehouse. In some designs, the ODS and the data warehouse are a single logical information repository. Whatever the specifics of the design, all data warehouses function similarly.Horton 2001, 36One implication is that implementing a strategy might be appropriate and feasible in situations where the entity in question is bounded by some definite frame (as in a high-technology company or a university), but is problematic when the entity is a geographic convenience encompassing a number of disparate record-creating entities, ranging from a typical small farm to the local bank to the data warehouse of the regional office of the Department of Human Services.
