Electronic Databases and Networking Research paper essays

Electronic Databases and Networking Research paper essays An electronic database is information stored so that it can be retrieved from a computer terminal. Rubin, Rubin, and Piele (1996), compilers of research sources, point out, A researcher who is reluctant to use computers to find information or who does not know how to do so effectively will be severely handicapped. The advantages of college library electronic databases are that they can be searched much more quickly than their print counterparts, results can be printed or downloaded onto a floppy disk, and at most schools the use of databases is free of charge. Depending of the size of your library, you may have access to such self-service databases as ERIC (700 educational journals and thousands of research reports collected by the U.S Department of Education), INFOTRAC Expanded Academic Index (more than 1,000 journals and newspapers emphasizing communication, history, humanities, law, political science, psychology, religion, sciences, social sciences, and sociology), MEDLINE (some 3,600 journals in biomedicine, health sciences, and medicine), PSYCLIT (more than 1,400 English and foreign-language journals in education, psychology, and sociology), SOCIOFILE (communication, criminal justice, demography, geography, political science, sociology, and speech), and LEXIX/NEXIS (accounting, business, government, law, and medicine) to name just a few. You can use these databases to compile bibliographies and view abstracts, or even full articles, on the computer screen. Reference librarians should know which databases your library subscribes to and can help you learn to access them. Today, anyone with access to personal computer also has access to national and international electronic networks. Most colleges and universities are now connected to the Internet- an international electronic network of networks. This superhighway of information provides access to an ever-increasing number of infor ...