Britannica Library, NAACP Papers, Silent Film Online, and more Best Databases of 2014 from the February 15, 2015 issue of Library Journal.
Librarians and library users have a variety of resources to turn to for their information needs: Internet search engines such as Google, common or institutional knowledge, the physical collection, and electronic databases. For public libraries, the term database describes a searchable collection of electronic records to which a library subscribes. It may also be used more generally to describe other electronic or Internet-based resources the library pays for, such as language learning or résumé-building sites. Access to and successful use of these resources is rarely intuitive and often frustrating for library patrons, who may be unaware of their existence until the moment of need.