When retrieving information from a database there are two very important terms that come to mind: precision (the relevant retrieval) and recall (the portion of relevant documents.) These terms refer to the outcome of a query run through a database, and the amount of data returned that is actually relevant to the query. The accuracy of the query results will vary through a variety of databases, returning different results, some databases more accurate, or more suited to the query, than others. Once a query has been determined it is then important to decide on the correct database to use. Whether the answer is a wide google search or a more narrow academic search complete, choosing the correct database will determine the recall of the query.
This is an important fact that few seem to realize. While producing an accurate query is incredibly important to the search recall, it is arguably more important that one chooses the correct database through which to run the query. The more specific the query the more necessary it is to choose a more specific database in order to return the most relevant documents. By being as selective about your database as you are about narrowing down your query the faster you will find the information relevant to your research or essay, cutting out time spent going through pages of results to find the same documents.
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