General search engines like Google are very useful for answering many types of everyday questions. While superficially similar to library databases, a fundamental difference between them is that search engines are not designed for the purpose of academic or scholarly research. Google states that is mission is " to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" it has another purpose, which is to make money for its shareholders through advertising and the collection of data.
Library databases are specifically designed for conducting research, usually in a specific field or subject area. They are highly structured and do not rely on advertising or commodification of user data as part of their business model. The resources included in a database or described in detail, with reliable metadata, indications of authority (like peer review) and updated for currency. The library databases also include tools to help you obtain content (like full-text linking and Interlibrary Loan functions) as well as embedded citation management tools.
| Google/Search Engines | Library Research Databases | |
|---|---|---|
| Defining Scope | Indexes the web which provides way to find information on any topic | Highly organized information that allows you to find information with high relevance to search terms |
| Scope of Information | Search engines, such as Google, make finding general information on pretty much any topic fairly easy. You may get millions of results for a search, with only the first 10 readily visible | Collections of information that are organizaed by subject, theme, genre, language, and other factors |
| Can you narrow your search? | Ability to focus a search on a type of consumer-oriented content, such as news, shopping, and images | Robust tools allow you to narrow efficiently by dozens of categories |
| Information strengths | Information from organizations, including reports, white papers, and company information | Primary and secondary sources in an array of formats including journal articles, ebooks, historical documents, videos, music, images, data, and newspapers. |
| Evaluating content | Since anyone can share information online, you have to carefully check any information that you may want to use in your academic work. | Verified, often peer-reviewed high-quality content from selected sources |