What's the difference between using a Database and the Internet?

Exploring The Differences:
The Internet is a worldwide collection of computer networks which provide many differing types of information. Some sites are for entertainment; some are for academic research.  Others may be commercial or post opinions, and some even intentionally give out false information. Anyone can publish anything, whenever they want. You will find some information free and sometimes you will be required to register or pay a fee. Searching the Internet is like sticking your hand in a "grab bag" of information -- sometimes all you get is junk, while at other times you will discover the exact fact you need for your assignment.

Databases are an information service provided to you as a student at Auburn University. The Auburn University Libraries pays for you to be able to access these services both on and off campus. These databases include thousands of magazines newspapers, scholarly journals and some reference books. It is important to realize that the databases are not the Internet. Even though you access the databases using an Internet browser, you are not searching the "open" Internet. If your instructor states that you can only use one Internet source, the databases should not count as that Internet source. EbscoHost’s Academic Search Elite, Infotrac’s Academic ASAP, and Project Muse are all example of databases.

The materials come from publishers, so they have been checked for accuracy and reliability. Some publishers are no longer providing information in a printed format.  The only way to get the information now, which was previously supplied in print, is through an online database.  Several of the databases come from print sources that publishers are now also selling in an online format.  For example, an article that you read from the New York Times through the Lexis Nexis Academic database will be the same article that was printed in the New York Times newspaper. 

The databases do not always have every article from the magazines or newspapers that they cover, and they do not include advertisements.  Some of them only provide an abstract, or short paragraph, from the article instead of the full-text.  In this case, you would have to go to the Auburn University Libraries’ catalog AubieCat, to determine if we own that particular copy of the print source to get a copy of the full article.

If you do not know where to begin your research on the databases, begin with the "Frequently Used Article Databases" listed on the left hand side of the Find Articles page http://www.lib.auburn.edu/articles.html. On the right side of the page, we have links to the complete list of available databases, sorted by title, subject and full text databases.

Definitions:
The Internet— The original uses of the Internet were e-mail, file transfer , bulletin boards and newsgroups, and telnet.  The World Wide Web, which enables simple and intuitive navigation of Internet sites through a graphical interface, expanded dramatically during the 1990s to become the most important component of the Internet....The Web operates within the Internet..." britannica.com

So -- the Internet is a bunch of computers, located through out the world, that share information.  The WWW is a tiny part of the Internet made of up documents (called sites) that work together with a language called html.  The WWW is just one avenue used to share all the information available on the Internet. 

Databases--- Databases can be found in different formats.  They are available in CD-ROMs and "online"--and (in a way) paper indexes are databases.  A database is a collection of data (in the library’s case, articles) that is organized so that its contents can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. The most prevalent type of library database is the relational database, a tabular database in which data is defined so that it can be reorganized and accessed in a number of different ways. [In library databases for example, articles can be retrieved either through keyword, author name, or title searches].

When do I use the Internet and when do I use a database?

Use the Internet when you: Are willing to evaluate the web site's content Want to go to a specific web site Want information on a unique topic Want government information such as tax forms Want other world-wide sites The Internet does have some excellent information - including some information that is not available anywhere else.  You just have to be willing to sort through the information and determine what is reliable.  The internet can be used for homework, research, and for fun.

Use databases when you want: Newspaper articles Magazine articles Encyclopedia articles Biographical information Statistical information You can sometimes get the exact same article from the print source, but it might be easier for you to  get it from a database.  Some databases are available from home with a library patron barcode number (if you have a computer with Internet access), so you don't have to come to the library to get a copy of the article.