Databases are collections of items. These items may consist of article citations (and links to full text and images) collected from scores of periodical publications including scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, or they may consist of bibliographic (descriptive) information about books, videos, sound recordings, etc. Database content and usually be printed, downloaded or emailed.

Users can search databases by entering a few key terms that describe the information sought and retrieve a list of "hits" related to those terms (article citations or full text links). Sometimes, multiple databases may be searched simultaneously.

When a database contains only a citation for the article needed, users can search the library catalog to see if the title and issue are owned by the library. If not, users can obtain the article through interlibrary loan. If you need help identifying the journal name in a database citation, please ask a librarian for assistance.

Most academic libraries subscribe to multiple databases containing full-text articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers published on the topics of importance to their users - the faculty, staff and students at their institution. They often group these databases by the subjects they cover but there are some databases with such broad coverage that they appear in multiple places in such lists, e.g. Academic Search Premier. The Library's group of databases by subject coverage can be found by clicking the Search for Articles button located at the top of any library web page.

Databases may require searching from a campus network connection or they may be accessible anywhere by using proxy technololgy an ID and password. Ask a librarian for assistance if you are uncertain how to locate, choose, or search the library's databases. 

Millions of articles originally published in print are now available in online databases, often as full text or a page image (about PDF files) format. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed on your computer to view the PDF files. (This software is already installed on the Library's computers.) HTML and XML documents are now appearing in databases. These documents function like a web page - they include images and hypertext links. No additional software is needed to open them. 

Most online databases provide a title/coverage list that shows the titles included and gives date/format coverage information. Such lists are very useful in deciding if a specific article should be included in the database. Some articles may not be included because the author did not grant permission to reproduce his or her work electronically. 

The coverage in an online database usually ranges from very complete for articles published since 1990 to much less complete for older articles. Not all periodicals are available in online databases and complete front to back coverage of an entire periodical issue is still rare. To locate articles published before 1990, a print index is still needed much of the time. 

Access to the Library's databases is available to all computers connected to the campus network and to off-campus users via proxy technology that requires them to login with their Schreiner ID and password.