A critical component of SharePoint is lists – the place we store data in SharePoint. The familiar document library is a special type of list that is designed to hold (primarily) Microsoft Office document types that people collaborate on, check out / check in, edit, version, and approve. There are many other "out-of-the-box" SharePoint lists you can create such as Announcements, Contacts, Events (calendar), Tasks, and more! Lists are where we store our data in SharePoint.
You should strive to use the out-of-the-box lists wherever possible. Next you should look to leverage an out-of-the-box list by "inheriting" from it and then customizing your own columns. If you wish, you may also create your own custom list from scratch.
A list is composed of columns – collectively they form the schema for the list. In SharePoint terms, the schema is called a Content Type , and the individual columns within the schema are called Site Columns . For example, the Contacts Content Type has columns...