Online research databases enable you to quickly and easily search vast collections of online data.
Literature databases record what has been published in the area you are researching. They contain detailed records of thousands of journal articles, book references and conference proceedings. These records usually include the article title, authors, abstract (a brief summary), keywords (to enable your search to find it) and more.
Other databases contain specific sorts of research resources such as news information, legal resources, audiovisual material etc.
Some databases provide full text access to the materials they include. Others act like an online index/bibliography and hold brief details only of the materials.