What's the difference between searching a library's electronic databases and Internet websites - the public web?
Library Databases
Websites (Public Web)
What are the differences?
Authors
Professionals or experts in the field
Anyone regardless of expertise
Audience
Scholarly
readers - professors, researchers or students, professionals in the field
Anyone
Authority /Credibility
Contain published works where facts are checked
Authoritative, accurate
Generally provide scholarly materials and/or allwo content to be limited to scholarly/peer reviewed content
Content is not necessarily checked by anyone, expert or not
Bias, reliability and/or accuracy concerns
Cannot limit to professional, scholarly literature
Sources/Credits
Provide all the necessary pieces of information to create a complete citation
May not provide the information necessary to create a complete citation
Search Features
Help you narrow down your topic or suggest related subjects
Sophisticated search tool - allows limiting searches by publication type, data, language, format (book, article), scholarly/peer reviewed, subject heading
Aren't often organized to support student research needs
Simple search tools - may allow limiting by language or file type, but often can not limit by publication date, format, scholarly/peer reviewed, subject heading
Search Results
A manageable number of results - can usually focus or limit as needed
Dozens to hundreds of hits - broad searches may result in additional results
Fewer duplicate results
Often an unwieldy number of results - can often only alter by changing search words
Thousands, sometimes millions of results
Greater number of duplicate/repackaged results
Currency
Updated frequently and include the date of publication
May not contain current information or indicate when a page is updated
Access
Available to anyone using a computer in a library that subscribes to databases or any library cardholder using a computer outside the library
Available to anyone with an internet connection - the public web
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