Effective Writing Center (EWC)

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Online Guide to Writing and Research

Chapter 6 Table of Contents

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Chapter 6: Using Library Resources

Information Resources

Finding Journal Articles

Web Databases

The Internet is is often described as a "network of computer networks" and is the largest network of computers in the world. The Internet allows anyone using the system to communicate and share information with anyone else on using the Internet no matter where they are in the world. It may be helpful to think of the Internet as the wiring or hardware and the Web as the software of the Internet. The terms Internet and Web are sometimes used interchangeably because anything on the Web is, by definition, on the Internet. Internet is the broader term and includes everything on the Web.

There are three components to the Web: Web documents, Web servers, and Web browsers. A Web document, typically referred to as a "page," is what you see when you are looking at a Web site. For example, if you traveled to UMUC's Web page at www.umuc.edu, you would be viewing a Web document when you connected to our site. A Web server is the computer where Web documents are housed, and a Web browser is the tool you use to view Web documents. Most people are familiar with the Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browsers. These browsers make it possible to access Web servers and view Web documents.

There are two main types of Web-based information, (1) publicly available (free) Web information and (2) proprietary Web information.

Publicly Available (Free) Web Information

Publicly available, or free, Web resources are accessible to anyone using the Internet. Web pages that are commonly made available without charge include company sites, educational institution home pages, government agency information sites, and Web pages produced by individuals. Publicly available Web pages make up most of the Web, but not the entire Web. For example, IBM has a home page advertising its products and services at http://www.ibm.com that is available to anyone with Web access. The UMUC home page at www.umuc.edu is another example of a publicly available Web page.
Proprietary Web Information

Some Web pages restrict access to their information. Such proprietary information requires a subscription or other specialized access method to ensure that only the people who have the right to view the data can access it. Below are some examples of proprietary information delivered via the Web:

Intranets-These are Web sites that are usually accessible only to employees at the company site or to those who are connecting from an off-site location using a password. An Intranet usually contains proprietary information such as an employee directory and information about clients and products.

Subscription resources-These are Web sites that require users to subscribe to the service before they can gain access to information available on the site. For example, the Wall Street Journal home page (www.wsj.com) makes a few advertising pages available free to all Web users, but most of this Web site is protected by password so only paying customers can access information.

It is important to remember that you can access many resources available via the Web but not all, and other people may not have the same access you do.

Now that you know the difference between freely available and proprietary information on the Web, you should know about the proprietary databases available to you as a UMUC student via the Web. ILS has purchased nearly 100 databases that include indexes to periodicals, reference materials, statistical databases, and electronic books and journals. You can use the databases to find popular and scholarly articles on a wide variety of topics, statistics, transcripts of television and radio programs, U.S. and international newspapers and other published materials.

As a student at UMUC, you have access to these databases from the ILS Web page at www.umuc.edu/library. MdUSA, pronounced "medusa," is the gateway to these databases. The majority of the databases are available through a single interface. For those databases accessible through MdUSA's single interface, you can search multiple databases simultaneously and customize your topic by selecting databases from a variety of disciplines. You can also save, e-mail or print multiple articles from search results of different databases.

MdUSA also provides access to databases that use the interface directly from the vendor. Unlike the databases you search through a single interface, you can only search these related databases one at a time but they may offer special search features not available in the MdUSA interface.

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