Research guides: Website evaluation: Databases vs. Internet

Examples of information NOT found on the Internet

Only a fraction of all the information that has ever been created can be located or retrieved using the Internet. For example, you won't find:

Materials protected by copyright
Content of many books
Original or primary documents (especially historical documents)
Material that can only be viewed with a subscription, password or fee

Database/Internet Comparison

Electronic Databases vs. Internet Websites

	Electronic Databases	Internet
Cost	Subscription costs (free to students through library)	Free
Access	Only available from networked computers on campus, or with a password	Available from any computer with Internet access
Articles written by	Journalists Reporters Professionals within a field Scholars	Anyone—the Internet is open to all—and there is no guarantee that the person named on the page is the one responsible for the content.
Content	Articles from reputable print publications ranging from the New York Times to Sports Illustrated to Journal of Justice & Behavior	Anything, from pictures of a person’s pets to personal (usually not researched and unsubstantiated) opinions on gun control, abortion, etc.
Appearance	Little or no advertising because a fee is paid to access resources. Search engines that search only the paid database and not the open Internet.	Ranges from obviously personal homepages to pages that look like reliable sources, but are not associated with any reputable organization. Appearance can mislead since organizations such as hate groups can have professional looking sites.
Publication schedule	Databases index and provide full-text access to publications that are in print, so the publication schedule should be the same with some lag time to get it into the computer. Usually updated: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, bi-annually. Issues are usually identified by volume and/or issue number.	Anytime the person who creates it feels like it
How useful academically	Useful for accessing full-text articles online from print publications that are available in the database.	Not useful for papers unless the criteria outlined in the web evaluation chart have been met. (See Evaluating Websites Library Guide).
Examples	Academic Search Complete, CBCA, JSTOR	Search engines such as Google, Bing, Blekko, DuckDuckGo, etc.

Adapted from “Internet and Web-based Databases,” Elon University

In Web research in academic libraries, Rebecca Sullivan, editor, ACRL, 2010, page 39