Re: [LM_NET] Target :Definition of Database

[Thomas Kaun <tomkaun@GMAIL.COM>]

Hi, Connie.
Perhaps the missing word here is "subscription." The term database does
refer to any "collection of related records ..." A library catalog is a
database, as is a collection of files in a file cabinet. But if you refer to
subscription database you are referring to a database which is purchased and
may therefore be considered to be professionally compiled and indexed.
At any rate that's how I'd explain it to a student or other library user.
Tom Kaun

On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 5:11 PM, Connie Marr <librarylands@alltel.net> wrote:

> I need to know if I am outdated on the view of what constitutes a Database.
>  In a glossary of online terms from Online Retrieval A Dialogue of Theory
> and Practice I found the definition as, "A collection of related records in
> machine-readable form.  Databases may be of various types-bibliographic,
> numeric, directory, or full-text.  It is the computer version of a file."
>  In my mind I always viewed databases as things such as EBSCO Host or other
> such services.
>
> Last week I had a student questioning why about.com was not considered a
> database.  After applying the above definition I am questioning myself.  He
> was saying that a family member recently graduated from college and for
> classes it was considered a database and not a web site.  We are using MLA
> so basically the citation comes out the same with either way.  This just got
> me thinking that maybe I was missing something.  Would that make Wikipedia a
> database?
>
> Is something like about.com a database?  If you asked me on Thursday I
> would have said no but am I wrong?  Has what constitutes a database changed?
>  Did I have the wrong impression from the start?  How do you define it for
> students so that they can see the difference?  Thank you for any help you
> can provide so I am being accurate with students.
>
> Connie Marr
> Librarian
> Ford City High School
> Ford City, Pennsylvania
> librarylands@alltel.net
>
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-- 
Thomas T. Kaun
Teacher Librarian
Bessie Chin Library @ Redwood High School
395 Doherty Drive, Larkspur, CA 94939
tomkaun@gmail.com | Library Web site: http://rhslibrary.org | Professional
development blog: http://tomlmt2.blogspot.com/ | Library news blog:
http://libraryleaves.blogspot.com

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day,
something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else
would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of
unanimity.
 - Christopher Morley

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