An abstract is a summary. In some of the databases you will find abstracts of articles, books or book chapters. An abstract gives you an idea of the topic of the book, chapter or article before you read it.
Some bibliographies simply provide a bibliographic citation.
Sometimes bibliographies are called the List of Works Cited . For example, a citation for an article tells you the journal in which the article appeared, the volume and issue number, the page numbers, and the length of the article. Most books are usually shelved by call number, which help to group books on the same subject together. Read the Database Basics part of this tutorial to learn more about using databases. This electronic catalog tells you what books, magazines, journals, movies, government publications and other materials the IU Libraries have.