A database access facility for accessing databases includes a monitoring function which monitors accesses by requestors of database data. The monitoring function tracks which database fields are requested to dynamically determine the fields which the application needs. Once sufficient tracking data is obtained, subsequent accesses to the database on behalf of an application are automatically modified by the application server to request only the fields which are likely to be needed. Preferably, the database access facility is an application server for one or middle tier applications which access the database on behalf of multiple clients in a three-tier client-server environment.