What are databases?
Bibliographic databases are searchable collections of journal articles and other resources like conference proceedings, book chapters, reports and standards. They can contain full-text or just abstracts.
Databases are useful for doing a thorough search of the literature on a subject as they often support more complex search queries than the Library Search. Database providers have their own search interfaces, and these vary depending on the supplier.
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For information, advice and training on a particular database visit the help pages on that supplier's site. There is more general help from Help and training.
You can also obtain help and training from your local library service.
For certain types of information, sometimes known as grey literature, it is better to go straight to the source of the information, as these may not be indexed in bibliographic databases. See Find more evidence sources.
Organising search results
Search results from databases can be saved and organised by creating a personal account within that database platform. You can also save search strategies and set up alerts when new information on a topic is published. Reference management software is available to manage references from your search results and NHS Scotland provides access to RefWorks.
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