Types of Databases and Access to Them

Each database document corresponds to a particular data record. Most data records are divided into separate fields, where systematic searching can be done, i.e. for authors names, patent assignees, publication years, titles, etc. Distinction is made between 

Bibliographic databases are most common in the field of the natural sciences. Chemical Abstracts and Chemical Industry Notes are typical bibliographic databases. Usually, they contain the following fields  

Fact files mostly include a great number of single fields which are non-text fields but often containing numeric, such as physical and thermodynamic data of compounds. Fact files are for instance Registry File, Beilstein and Gmelin as well as Specinfo. Some numeric databases - special kind of fact files - even allow calculations to be made, e.g. in Inorganic Crystal Structure Data. 

The FILE command, abbreviated FIL, is used to access a database, e.g. 

It is possible to access several databases at the same time (multifile searching) FIL CA,BIOSIS,MEDLINE,EMBASE 

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