Use Technological Tools (Overview of Databases)

Information Competence

Introduction

Overview of Databases

Overview of the Web

Search Strategies

Evaluating Results

Capturing Information

Bibliographic databases

Bibliographic databases consist of records with basic descriptive information about the indexed items such as author, title, publisher, date, publication title, etc.

Bibliographic databases do not contain the items themselves, but give you all the information you need to find the item. They provide bibliographic citations, and sometimes include summaries or descriptions of the items.

Here is an example of a record from a bibliographic database, in this case, an online catalog:

CALL NUMBER	SF360.3 .U6 P37 1986
AUTHOR	Paskett, Parley J., 1918-
TITLE	Wild Mustangs / Parley J. Paskett
PUBLISHER	Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, c1986.
DESCRIPTION	xxi, 121 p., [7] p. of plates : ill., 23 cm.
BIBLIOGRAPHY	Bibliography: p. xviii-xxi.
Subject	Wild horses -- West (U.S) -- Anecdotes. Mustang. Horses -- West (U.S.) -- Anecdotes.

Here is an example from another bibliographic database, a periodical index called Article First. Notice a summary (abstract) of the item is included.

Information needed to find the complete article