1. A method comprising: receiving a query for a target data set managed by a database management system, the query specifying a predicate for a particular column of the target data set, said predicate comprising a filtering value to be compared with row values of the particular column of the target data set; prior to accessing a plurality of data block sets that store the target data set in persistent storage, identifying a plurality of in-memory summaries, each in-memory summary of said plurality of in-memory summaries corresponding to a corresponding data block set from the plurality of data block sets, said each in- memory summary comprising one or more in-memory data structures, each in- memory data structure of said one or more in-memory data structures representing values stored in the corresponding data block set in a corresponding column of the target data set; wherein a particular in-memory data structure of said plurality of in-memory summaries represents values of the particular column stored in a particular data block set of said plurality of data block sets; determining whether the particular data block set can possibly contain the filtering value in the particular column by at least determining, based on the particular in- memory data structure, a set of membership of said filtering value in the values of the particular column stored in said particular data block set; if the determination is that the particular data block set cannot possibly contain the filtering value in the particular column, skipping a retrieval of the particular data block set from the persistent storage in evaluating the query; if the determination is that the particular data block set can possibly contain the filtering value in the particular column, retrieving the particular data block set from the persistent storage for evaluating the query; and wherein the method is executed by one or more computing devices.