the data in a database is organized in some way. before there were computers, employee data was often kept in filing cabinets. there was usually one card for each employee. on the card, information such as the date of birth or the name of the employee could be found. a database also has such "cards". to the user, the card will look the same as it did in old times, only this time it will be on the screen. to the computer, the information on the card can be stored in different ways. each of these ways is known as a database model. the most commonly used database model is called the "relational database model". it uses relations and sets to store the data. normal users talking about the database model will not talk about relations; instead, they will talk about database tables.