Structure of a Database

An Online Tutorial Taking You Through the Steps of the Library Research Process Structure of a Database

Tutorial Contents:

Databases consist of records. If you think about a library catalog, each book in the database is represented by an individual record. Each record consists of fields. In a library catalog record, these fields provide information about a particular book. Examples of fields would be the author, the title, and the subject headings. Fields can be searched. In a periodical database there would be one record for each article indexed by the database. The record of a periodical database would consist of fields like the periodical title (sometimes referred to as the source), the article title, and the author. Below is an image of a record from a periodical database. The left column shaded in yellow describes the parts of the record.

The highlighted items are all examples of fields. Most fields in a database can be searched.	Title:	Has Google Won? A Librarian Says Students Have More Data Than They Know What to Do With.
	Author(s):	Carlson, Scott Bell, Steven J.
A keyword search would search all the fields in the record.	Source:	Chronicle of Higher Education; 2/7/2003, Vol. 49 Issue 22, pA28, 1/3p
	Document Type:	Interview
A subject search would only search the subject field. This was a keyword search using the search terms full-text databases.	Subject(s):	ELECTRONIC information resource searching ELECTRONIC information resources LIBRARIANS BELL, Steven -- Interviews
This record was retrieved because the words *full-text databases* appear in the abstract. Most online databases will bold your search terms wherever they appear in the record and in the full-text of the article (if included).	Abstract:	Interviews librarian Steven J. Bell about online information received by students. Information on the library's electronic resources; Impact of *full-text* *databases* on the search skills of students.
	Full Text Word Count:	771
	ISSN:	00095982
	Accession Number:	9095595
	Database:	Academic Search Premier