Biblical Studies Guide: Databases

What is a database? A database is an organized collection of records presented in a standardized format that can be searched on a computer. The Orbis catalog is a database, as is the ATLA Religion Database.

When you search in a database what you are doing is searching through records that represent and describe some other object, such as a book, an article, a collection of facts. When you search in the ORBIS catalog, for example, you are not searching within the books themselves, but instead you are searching through records that have been created to describe the books (and other items) within the collections of the Yale libraries. The record provides you with information about an item, such as its author, what it is about, and where it can be found.

There are various electronic databases that can help you locate articles, statistics, primary texts, and other kinds of information. You can search in a single database, or you can search within multiple databases at the same time (for instructions on searching across multiple databases, see Search Articles). While there are literally hundreds of databases available at Yale, only a certain number of them are specifically geared toward religious studies and theology. However, there are also a number of databases that cover related subject areas, as well as databases that cover more than one subject area, including religion.

All the databases available at Yale are accessible through the Find Databases page on the library's web site.

For databases to find journal articles in Biblical Studies, see Article Databases for Biblical Studies under Finding Journal Articles.