The document discusses advanced database management systems (ADBMS). It provides background on how databases have become essential in modern society and outlines new applications like multimedia databases, geographic information systems, and data warehouses. The document then covers the history of database applications from early hierarchical and network systems to relational databases and object-oriented databases needed for e-commerce. It also discusses how database capabilities have been extended to support new applications involving scientific data, images, videos, data mining, spatial data, and time series data.