The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

Conference On DAta SYstems Languages
CODASYL

    (CODASYL) A consortium that developed database models and
   standard database extensions for COBOL.

   CODASYL was formed in 1959 to guide the development of a
   standard programming language that could be used on many
   computers.  Members came from industry and government data
   processing departments.  Its goal was to promote more effective
   data systems analysis, design and implementation.  It published
   specifications for various languages over the years, handing these
   over to official standards bodies (ISO, ANSI or their
   predecessors) for formal standardisation.

   The 1965 List Processing Task Force worked on the IDS/I database
   extension.  It later renamed itself to the Data Base Task Group
   (DBTG) and publishing the Codasyl Data Model, the first to allow
   one-to-many relations.  This work also introduced data
   definition languages (DDLs) to define the database schema and a
   data manipulation language (DML) to be embedded in COBOL
   programs to request and update data in the database.

   Interest in CODASYL declined with the rise of relational
   databases beginning in the early 1980s.

   (2013-12-29)