A database is an organized collection of related information. It is made up of records, each of which represents a single unit of information, such as a bibliographic citation to an article, a book, or a chapter in a book. Each record is further divided into categories of information called fields, such as title, author, and publication year.
Some databases are bibliographic, providing citations to published documents.
They may also include a summary or abstract of the document. Some databases provide the full text of documents while others contain biographies of newsmakers or authors. Each record represents a single unit of information, such as a bibliographic citation to an article, book chapter, or complete book. Each record is further divided into fields, such as Author and Title. Each field contains a specific kind of information, such as the name of an author, the text of an abstract a subject heading, keywords, or a special code.