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Web |
Databases |
| Authority |
- Varies and is difficult to verify.
- Cannot limit to professional, scholarly literature.
- Web content is seldom regulated; anyone with Internet access can post content.
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- Easy to determine.
- Credentials often provided in standardized format, so you don't need to hunt for them.
- Most contain only scholarly literature or offer a scholarly/peer-reviewed search filter.
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| Relevance |
- Lack of subject focus can result in numerous irrelevant hits – or "junk" – to wade through.
- Much web information is opinionated and biased.
- Quantity does not equal Quality.
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- Focus by subject (business, art, American history) and/or format (journals, books, reviews) often means more relevant information and less time wasted dealing with junk.
- Information comes from legitimate, quality-controlled, published sources.
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| Search features |
- Varies by search engine, but often limited.
- Can limit by document type (.doc, .pdf) or language, but limiting by publication date, format (article, book, etc.), scholarly/peer-reviewed is unavailable.
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- Numerous advanced search features determined by database subject focus, e.g., limiting by publication type, date, language, document format, scholarly/peer-reviewed status.
- The list of features is as long as the number of databases available.
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Access to published
information
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- Web information often lives and dies on the Web and can come from anyone with Internet access.
- Seldom is the information coming from legitimate published sources: magazines, academic journals, books, etc. When it is, the user usually has to pay to access it.
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- Deal only with published information; that is, information that originally appeared in print: magazine and journal articles, books, etc.
- More stable than the web. Through the library's paid access, all of this information is available to you, the user, for free.
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