What is a database?

The basic electronic information storage unit

A database is a collection of information organized to provide efficient retrieval. The collected information could be in any number of formats (electronic, printed, graphic, audio, statistical, combinations). There are physical (paper/print) and electronic databases.
A database could be as simple as an alphabetical arrangement of names in an address book or as complex as a database that provides information in a combination of formats.
Examples:

• phone book
• address book
• Census Bureau data

Types of Databases

Text, graphics and audio information grouped by what they have in common

Databases provide various formats of information. Different databases provide different kinds of information. In this unit we are focusing on the kinds of databases you use for doing research.
Bibliographic databases provide a descriptive record of an item, but the item itself is not provided in the database. Information about the item is provided, including such things as author, title, subject, publisher, etc. The information provided is called a citation. Sometimes a short summary or abstract of the item is provided as well. Examples of bibliographic databases include the GALILEO database Social Sciences Abstracts, or the Internet Movie Database on the World Wide Web.
A full-text database provides the full-text of a publication. For instance, Research Library in GALILEO provides not only the citation to a journal article, but often the entire text of the article as well. "CollegeSource Online" offers full-text of 20,000 college catalogs, so rather than having to request a catalog from several colleges to make comparisons, you can gather information from all colleges you're interested in at one time.
Some databases provide numeric information, such as statistics or demographic information. Examples of these are (link will open in a pop-up window) Census Bureau databases and databases containing stock market information.
You can also find databases that collect only image information (EBSCOhost image collection), audio information (MP3 or wav files), or a combination of any of the above types (CNN).
CNN's site has a search option that provides access to news articles and the original video and audio files that accompanied them. Try the link below for a look at the combination of information types in CNN's database.
Meta-databases are databases that allow one to search for content that is indexed by other databases. GOLD is an example of this kind of database. If you find a citation for an article in one of the bibliographic databases and want to determine if the article is available in full-text in another database, you could do a search for the journal in GALILEO in Journals A-Z to get a list of all the databases that index that specific publication.

Information in Databases: Subjects and Publication Types

How databases categorize information

Each database type can be further divided by subject and publication types.
Subject area: The information in a database can be specific to a particular academic discipline or subject, such as Business, Medicine, Agriculture, etc.
Examples:

GALILEO > Business and Economics > ABI/INFORM Complete

GALILEO > Medicine and Health Sciences > MEDLINE

GALILEO > Science & Technology > AGRICOLA

WANT MORE on Subject areas?
> Unit 2 > Starting Your Seach
and
> Unit 5 > The Great GALILEO

Publication type: Some databases might cover only information collected from periodicals (magazines, newspapers, journals) while others cover only books. Popular and current events publications might be the focus of some databases and others might cover information only from scholarly journals.
Examples:

Books:
Online library catalog (GIL), WorldCat

Scholarly journals:
Current Contents, PsycFIRST

Popular culture and current events:
MasterFILE Premier

Combination of scholarly and popular publications:
Academic Search Complete

Language:
Some databases cover only English language materials while other databases include citations to materials in a variety of languages.

Time Period:
Generally, databases cover only a certain range of dates. The MLA (Modern Language Association) database covers a period from 1926 to the present, while Academic Search Complete offers citations to information published from 1865 to the present, but most full-text dates from the 1990s to the present.

Availability of materials indexed in database:
One library isn't likely to carry all the publications indexed in a database. Both size and mission determine the type materials an institution has and the depth of coverage subjects are given. Smaller two-year college libraries aren't likely to carry as many discipline specific publications as a four-year graduate research institution. Also consider, an institution that has a nursing (or other) program will 1) have materials that support the program, and 2) provide coverage of the program based on the type degrees offered, i.e., an institution offering a masters degree in nursing will have more materials on the subject that an institution offering only a bachelors degree in nursing.

There are generally three options for obtaining needed materials: your library; another University System Library; or a library outside the state. Search the GIL online catalog to determine the materials your library has. Search the GIL Universal Catalog, linked from library home pages, to find materials owned by other University System of Georgia libraries. If materials are not available within the state, they can be obtained through interlibrary loan, but if time is a concern, you might want to search a database that would be more likely to offer information that can be found in your home library or at another University System library.

WANT MORE on GIL
> Unit 6 > GIL

WANT MORE on GOLD
> Unit 5 > The Great GALILEO

WANT MORE on Interlibrary Loans
> Unit 3 > What All Libraries Have

Summary
Types of databases & their divisions

Formats	Type of information divisions
Bibliographic Full-text database Numeric Image Audio Combination	Subject area Publication type Language Availability of materials indexed in database