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OCS1000_2024_Fall

What Is a Database?

A database is simply an organized collection of information in which descriptions about the information have been systematically entered.​  These descriptions, called records, can be easily searched.  Database users can retrieve records about the information—and often the information itself—based upon search terms.​  Additionally, database managers can continually add, edit, and/or remove the database content as well as the content records.​

In libraries, the term database has come to have a secondary meaning--a proprietary database to which the library subscribes for the use of its users.