What's the difference between searching a library's electronic databases and Internet websites - the public web?
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Library Databases
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Websites (Public Web)
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What are the differences?
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Authors
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- Professionals or experts in the field
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- Anyone regardless of expertise
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Audience
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- Scholarly readers - professors, researchers or students, professionals in the field
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Authority
/Credibility
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- Generally provide scholarly materials and/or allow content to be limited to scholarly/peer reviewed content
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- Content is not necessarily checked by anyone, expert or not
- Bias, reliability and/or accuracy concerns
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Sources/Credits
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- Provide all the necessary pieces of information to create a complete citation
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- May not provide the information necessary to create a complete citation
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Search Features
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- Help you narrow down your topic or suggest related subjects
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- Aren't often organized to support student research needs
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Search Results
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- A manageable number of results - can usually focus or limit as needed
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- Often an unwieldy number of results - can often only alter by changing search words
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Currency
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- Updated frequently and include the date of publication
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- May not contain current information or indicate when a page is updated
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Access
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- Available to anyone using a computer in a library that subscribes to databases.
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- Available to anyone with an internet connection - the public web
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