English Paper Research Guide: Databases vs. The Open Web

                Library Databases                                                 The Free, Open Web

When to Use

• Best for school research.
• Best for credible information, quickly.
• Best for full-text scholarly articles.

• Best for shopping and entertainment.
• Good for finding statistics.
• Good place to find background information.

Reliability

• Articles and books are written by journalists or experts in a professional field.
• All the material is evaluated for accuracy and credibility by subject experts.
• Content is reviewed and updated regularly.

• Anyone can publish opinions and ideas on the internet.
• Much of the information found for free is NOT evaluated for accuracy and reliability.
• You must evaluate the resources yourself.

Access

• Library databases require subscriptions paid for by the school.
• Access is usually automatic at school, but may require a login from home.

• Information is usually free.
• Some publishers share a link, but then require the payment of a fee for access to all of the content.

Permanence

• Published content from journals, magazines, newspapers, and books does not change.
• Most materials remain in the databases for a long time and can be easily retrieved again. 

•  Web site content can often change.
• Web pages and sites may disappear, leaving no way to retrieve the same content later.