A database is a collection of information that is organized so that its contents can be easily accessed, managed, and updated. Most are relational databases, meaning that the database is structured so that it can be reorganized and accessed in a number of ways.

Information about a single item in a database is called a record. The record has fields that hold the information.

The library catalog is a database. Each record describes a single book. There is a field for author, for title, for publishing information, and so forth. Most of the fields are searchable when you query the database.

Here's an illustration of a database record for an article written by Chana R. Schoenberger titled "Search and Ye Shall Find: Database Search Services," published in Forbes (Forbes is a business magazine) in the 11 November 2002 issue, on page 136.

Field name	What's in that field
Author	Schoenberger, Chana R.
Title	Search and Ye Shall Find: Database Search Services
Periodical	Forbes
Date of publication	11 November 2002
Page(s)	136
Subject(s)	Database searching; Information retrieval; Online databases

A typical online database available in a library will have thousands and thousands of records in it. When you specify that you are looking for articles, say, by a certain author, or with certain words in the title, or on a particular subject, the database looks for those words occurring in the fields you specify. Together, the field names, and the field contents, provide access to the materials that match the query.

The major electronic periodicals database available at Cabrillo College Library is EBSCOhost's Academic Search Elite. Want to review how to use Academic Search Elite?

To learn more about advanced search features,

Here's the basic Advanced Search screen:

The term "Default Fields" means the preselected options adopted by the computer when no alternative is specified by the user (and you thought "default" meant that you were behind in paying back a debt!)

You can change the defaults. Suppose I'm remembering an article on whales published in the Smithsonian. I can do a pretty precise search! I look for "whales" as a SU (Subject), and search for "smithsonian" as the SO (for Source, i.e., Journal_Name).

You'll notice that you don't need to use all the lines.

One very powerful feature in Academic Search Elite is that you can search inside the fulltext of the periodical articles. Suppose, for example, that you were an anthropology student. You'd already read all the articles on Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead (two prominent 20th century American anthropologists) -- you've searched for those names as subjects and as words in titles. Yet, could you find articles that talk about Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead in the article text? Yes! The search might look like this:

You can limit to articles with images! Suppose you wanted recipes for making bread, but you wanted pictures along with the recipes. Or, suppose you wanted pictures of whales. Or, pictures of surfing. It's all possible. Just use the image limiter:

Databases are very useful! At home, you probably have a list of phone numbers and addresses for your friends and family. Or, maybe you have a recipe file. It's likely you have a phonebook.

These are all databases. If you were to transfer the information from these print sources into a computerized database, you would create item records and field names, similar to those illustrated here.

How to get to this page on the Internet

Topsy N. Smalley last rev. 10/07/03