What is the difference between a Database and the Internet?

A database is a collection of data arranged for ease and speed of search and retrieval. It is also called a data bank.  The University Libraries subscribe to many databases that support students’ coursework. These databases are proprietary; in other words, they contain much copyrighted information and must be paid for. The library pays licensing fees for these so the students might use them. These databases contain information that is reliable and appropriate for use in class assignments.  Some of the information provided by the databases is stored on Seton Hall’s main computers, while some information is retrieved via Internet connection to computers owned by database companies.  All are accessible through the Seton Hall University computer network.

An Internet search engine is a software program that searches the Internet and gathers and reports information or is related to specified terms. The search engine will generally provide access to web pages that are indexed by a given Internet company. Many of these pages seem to present information that can be used for student’s courses. However, they differ from the library databases in three major ways:

• Much of the information presented on the Internet is not reliable, since anyone can publish a web page without any fact checking or verification

• Good, reliable resources on the Internet are usually fee-based

• Internet search engines are not as sophisticated as the library database search engines, which makes fine-tuned research very difficult. Thus, students may find that they find too much of the wrong information

Therefore, it is best to use the library databases for coursework research. The information retrieved is reliable and of high quality, the databases are paid for by the University Libraries, and they allow for a variety of search strategies, so students don’t have to wade through useless information in order to find relevant resources.