Searching Tools
In this module, we will discuss the four most common tools for searching for information. Check out the chart below to learn a little more about each one.
| Search Tool | What It Does |
| Catalogs | A catalog tells you what a particular library or resource center houses in its collection. In short, it tells you which books, journals, videos, CDs and other materials a library owns. |
| Databases | In libraries, databases are stores of articles and essays on a particular topic from a particular set of journals and books. Databases index articles and essays from journals to help you find articles on a particular topic. This keeps you from having to look through magazine after magazine for an article on your topic. |
| Search Engines | Search Engines search the internet for webpages that contain the words or phrases you are looking for. |
| Bibliographies | Bibliographies are lists of books, articles, websites and other materials on a particular topic. Bibliographies can be found anywhere -- in reference books, at the ends of books and articles, on the web and published as entire books on their own. |
While you may have heard of these tools before, let's take a look at each one in-depth.
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