In a sense, any collection of information is a database. An organized collection of citations for books or articles is a bibliographic database. The printed volumes of Biological Abstracts, or the MLA Bibliography, or Psychological Abstracts constitute bibliographic databases in paper form. There are also databases of numeric and full-text information, as well as computer shareware and images.
Many databases exist online as well as in paper format.
The library makes available a number of computer searchable databases. Many computerized databases are also accessible to authenticated SUNY Potsdam users from off-campus. This enables a researcher to conduct searches and receive responses from the database through an internet connection. For some databases it will be necessary to obtain a password from a librarian, and for others an appointment with a librarian is needed to conduct the search. At present, some subject areas are well served by online databases while others have little in this form.