This document provides a history and overview of Microsoft Access. It discusses how Access was originally released in 1992 and became popular with the release of Office 95. Access helped popularize databases and allowed non-technical users to create them through its graphical interface. While making Access more user-friendly, it also made programming more difficult. The document outlines how Access became core to many businesses for organizing data and generating reports through tables, forms, queries and other features. It also explains how political campaigns now widely use Access for tracking donors, finances, volunteers and complying with regulations.