What Will An Article Database Do?

We have learned that the catalog will give us a call number to find the book we are looking for in the library, but how will a database help us find an article when it doesn't even know if my library owns it?

The database will provide you with one, two or all three of the following bits of information. The most important thing to remember is to write down the citation. The citation is like the call number for an individual article; it will have everything you need to locate it.

	Citation  Although the database may not contain the article itself, the citation will provide the information that you need to find the article. This is also the information you need to cite this article in your bibliography.
	Abstract  It may also include an abstract or summary of the article's content.
	Full text  Sometimes a database will link to the complete text of the article.