What do I need to read Microsoft Access databases using Python?

On Linux, MDBTools is your only chance as of now. ^[disputed]

On Windows, you can deal with mdb files with pypyodbc.

To create an Access mdb file:

import pypyodbc
pypyodbc.win_create_mdb( "D:\\Your_MDB_file_path.mdb" )

Here is an Hello World script that fully demostate pypyodbc's Access support functions.

Disclaimer: I'm the developer of pypyodbc.

I've used PYODBC to connect succesfully to an MS Access db - on Windows though. Install was easy, usage is fairly simple, you just need to set the right connection string (the one for MS Access is given in the list) and of you go with the examples.