IL Tutorial: Indexes and Databases

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An index is a listing that gives an exact location for each item listed.

Some examples are:

• Look in the back of one of your textbooks, you will probably find an index. If you look for a particular topic, the index will list the page numbers in the textbook where that topic is addressed.
• The TV Guide indexes TV shows.
• The phone book lists an alphabetical index of people's phone numbers in a given area.
• A periodical index allows you to search for articles on a particular topic in magazines, newspapers and journals.

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Although an index may be in print or electronic format, a database is stored electronically. Essentially, a database is an electronic index created with special software to allow you to search for specific information.

The NOBLE catalog, for example, is a database of all the books and media owned by the NSCC libraries. In addition to this database, the NSCC libraries subscribe to a number of databases for books, reference sources, magazines, journals, newspapers, and videos. These databases are carefully chosen for the quality of the articles indexed.

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