Database Characteristics :

In general, databases are computerized collections of bits of information that can be sorted and searched in many ways. For example, if I created a computer-accessible listing of all songs on all CDs in my home music collection and provided means for searching the listing for specific types of information, then I would have created a small database. In this collection of information, I might enter data about the performers, about the instrumentation on each song, about the duration of each song, and about the style of music for each. Each of these elements could then be used as a means for sorting or arranging the data and for searching the entire collection for songs with similarities. Indexes that I could generate might include indexes to

album title		date of recording
song title		name of vocalist
artist name		type of instrument
style of music		length of recording
song writer		collection location

or to nearly any other attribute that I decided was important for locating music in my collection. The whole idea behind organizing this information in a database would be to make finding music in my collection easier. For example, I might remember the name of a song, but not be able to recollect who sang it or recorded it and on which album it appeared. My database would provide me with quick access to a single song in a collection of hundreds or thousands of songs. This, in turn, would save me the time it would take to try to locate the song by flipping through CDs and would give me more time to actually enjoy listening to the song that I was searching for.

Databases are time-savers. They enable us to locate needed information more quickly, which then provides us with more time to use the information. When it comes to doing research, periodical literature databases can make an enormous difference in how much time a person has to actually work with the material. Rather than manually shuffle through year after year of printed indexes, a researcher can have a computer system go through many years of indexing looking for key concepts and save literally days of time that would have been spent pouring through the indexes. Time saved on locating information is time available for reading and understanding the retrieved information. For academic researchers working under deadlines for turning in papers, this can translate, ultimately, into more thoroughly researched and better written papers.

General Purpose Databases:

General Purpose Databases provide researchers with quick access to a wide variety of magazines and journals. Coverage is typically geared more toward magazines than to journals, so an academic researcher might not find enough information at the academic level for a research project. For example, the Readers' Guide Abstracts provides access to article abstracts from more than 300 popular magazines. While it does cover a few academic journals, such as the Columbia Journalism Review and the Harvard Business Review, coverage is by and large focused on more popular publications such as Time and Newsweek.

Researchers using the Readers' Guide Full Text will find that most articles indexed also have brief summaries. Not all have the summaries, but they will at least have subject descriptions of article content listed as "Descriptors." Following is a sample article citation that includes an abstract. Note that the full article citation is given (author, title, magazine, volume, number, date, pages), that the article language is listed, that an abstract is provided and that the article's subject matter is described in a series of descriptors. This information can help the researcher evaluate the article prior to trying to locate it in a library's collection.

Sample Entry from the Readers' Guide Full Text

Author(s): Forster, Julie.
Title: GM Foods: Why Fight Labeling?.
Source: Business Week no3807 (Nov. 11 2002) p. 44
Journal Code: Bus Week
Additional Info: United States
Standard No: ISSN: 0007-7135
Details: il.
Language: English
Abstract: The food industry's approach to Measure 27 in Oregon is shortsighted. If passed on November 5, Measure 27 will require food companies to clearly label any product sold or produced in Oregon that contains genetically modified (GM) ingredients. Hoping to get ahead of what it fears could become a national food trend, a coalition of farmers, biotech companies, and foodmakers has spent $5.2 million since July in a lobbying effort to defeat Measure 27. The money would be better spent on educating the public about the safety and benefits of genetic modification. The food industry's fear of labeling illustrates the terrible job it has done thus far.
SUBJECT(S)
Descriptor:
Bioengineered foods -- Labeling.
Referendum.
Food laws and regulations.
Record Type: article
Article Type: feature article
Accession No: BRGA02044587
Database: ReadersGuideAbs
     © the H.W. Wilson Company.

If the researcher decides that this is a worthwhile article, he or she can check the library's catalog to see if the publication is available. In the case of the above article, the researcher would search for the magazine Business Week.

Readers' Guide Full Text is only one of a number of general purpose databases that can provide a variety of viewpoints on nearly any subject from a variety of publications. This won't necessarily be the best place to cover every topic, but it certainly can give a researcher a good working foundation upon which to build.

In addition to the Readers' Guide Full Text, researchers might also want to try one of the following general purpose databases:

Academic OneFile -- Good for nearly any topic, AcademicOneFile provides indexing and abstracting of more than 8000 magazines, journals, and newspapers. Full text of articles is available for a majority of the publications covered. Expanded Academic covers articles published from 1980 to date.

Lexis Nexis Academic -- Providing access to newspapers, magazines, and journals worldwide, Lexis Nexis provides the full text of thousands of publications. Included are U.S. and foreign newspapers, state and regional sources, trade magazines, popular consumer magazines, research journals, and a complete legal research collection. Researchers tackling a current interest topic can find popular coverage from a variety of news sources, research the finer points of a topic in major research publications, and even identify legal issues surrounding the topic, along with supporting court cases.

Omnifile Full Text -- An excellent starting place for nearly any topic, Omnifile covers thousands of magazines and journals covering a variety of disciplines, from education to sociology to science to music. Sources range in focus from very general coverage to in-depth scholarly research. Most articles included in Omnifile are full text, making the database a favorite of researchers needing the information right now.

How To Use General Purpose Databases

The primary value of general purpose databases is in their broad coverage of nearly any topic in popular magazines. Search a general purpose database if

you want to find easy-to-read articles on nearly any topic

you want to do background reading on a topic to get a better understanding of the main concepts involved prior to launching an intensive search in a journal article database

you need to find current articles on noteworthy events and notable people

you need to select a research topic and want a quick overview of a variety of newsworthy topics

you need to find editorials on a variety of controversial topics

you need to find a series of articles that trace a developing event

you want to find book reviews of fiction and nonfiction

you want to current consumer information and product reviews

you want to find reviews of motion pictures and sound recordings

If your research needs dictate that you use articles from scholarly, academic publications, the general databases will not be your best choices, but they will at least give you a starting place. For in-depth coverage of an academic topic, you should always try to select a database which focuses on scholarly publications rather than on magazines.