Large-scale information systems in public utility services depend on computing infrastructure. Many research efforts are being made in related areas, such as cloud computing, sensor networks, mobile computing, high-level user interfaces and information accesses by Web users. Government agencies in many countries plan to launch facilities in education, health-care and information support as part of e-government initiatives. In this context, information interchange management has become an active research field. A number of new opportunities have evolved in design and modeling based on the new computing needs of the users. Database systems play a central role in supporting networked information systems for access and storage management aspects.

The 7th International Workshop on Databases in Networked Information Systems (DNIS) 2011 was held during December 12–14, 2011 at the University of Aizu in Japan. The workshop program included research contributions and invited contributions. A view of the research activity in information interchange management and related research issues was provided by the sessions on related topics. The keynote address was contributed by Divyakant Agrawal. The session on Accesses to Information Resources had an invited contribution from Susan B. Davidson. The following section on Information and Knowledge Management Systems had invited contributions from H.V. Jagadish and Tova Milo. The session on Information Extration from Data Resources included the invited contributions by P. Krishna Reddy. The section on Geospatial Decision Making had invited contributions by Cyrus Shahabi and Yoshiharu. We would like to thank the members of the Program Committee for their support and all authors who considered DNIS 2011 for their research contributions.

The sponsoring organizations and the Steering Committee deserve praise for the support they provided. A number of individuals contributed to the success of the workshop. We thank Umeshwar Dayal, J. Biskup, D. Agrawal, Cyrus Shahabi, Mark Sifer, and Malu Castellanos for providing continuous support and encouragement.

The workshop received invaluable support from the University of Aizu. In this context, we thank Shigeaki Tsunoyama, President of the University of Aizu. Many thanks are also due for the faculty members at the university for their cooperation and support.