Time to Redefine Database

IT USED TO BE EASY to define a database. It was "a continuously updated computer file of related information, abstracts, or references on a particular subject, arranged for ease and speed of search and retrieval" (ODLIS: Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science, www.wcsu.ctstateu.edu/library/ odlis.html). A database publisher such as Psychological Abstracts or Engineering Information was responsible for creating the content (and perhaps distributing the printed indexes), but the vendor, such as Dialog or SilverPlatter, transformed the content to make it searchable and then provided access.

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