Databases
Available for Elementary and Young Adult Student Research
General Databases useful for student research (elementary
through high school)
Kids
Search (Gr. K-5) is designed for students in grades K
through 5. Search by keyword or
topic in sources such as the American
Heritage Dictionary, EBSCO Animals,
Funk & Wagnalls
Searchasaurus is a child-friendly, but less sophisticated, interface for searching most of the same sources found in KIDS SEARCH. Includes a tutorial and “Fun Facts.” Although the source content is largely the same, the format is more appropriate for younger elementary school students.
Primary Search provides full text for more than 60 popular magazines for elementary school research. Most full text articles included in the database are assigned a Lexile reading level indicator. Also includes sources such as World Almanac for Kids.
Student
(Gr. 6-12) Research Center makes it easy for students to
search by keyword or by topic to find the most useful search results. Results
can be easily sorted by source type. Includes coverage of current events, health,
careers and other topics.
Middle Search Plus provides full text for more than 150 popular magazines for middle and jr. high school research. Most full text articles included in the database are assigned a Lexile reading level indicator. Full text information dates as far back as 1990.
MAS Ultra –School Edition provides full text for over 550 popular general interest and current events publications with information dating back as far as 1975 for key magazines. Intended for use by high school and middle school students, it also provides full text pamphlets, full text reference books, biographies, primary source documents, and an image collection of photos, maps and flags.
World Book Online offers encyclopedia articles
carefully edited for student reading levels, tables that cover a huge range from
facts about countries and other places to important dates, as well as audio
clips of bird songs, popular and classical music, national anthems, word
pronunciations, and much more. The maps in the online atlas cover the
whole globe interactively, linking to each other, and directly to articles on
continents, countries, states, provinces, cities and other places shown on the
maps. Click on “change display” to
view a more child-friendly interface.
Gale
Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and
specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. Most are intended for adults, but many
are useful for student research, especially the Junior Worldmark sets on countries, states, world cities, world
holidays, and foods of the world, as well as Something About the Author.
Specialized Databases
that are useful for student research on particular topics
Biography Resource Center combines award-winning biographies from respected Gale Group sources. It also includes full-text articles from hundreds of periodicals.
CQ
Researcher offers in-depth, non-biased coverage of political and social
issues, with regular reports on topics in health, international affairs,
education, the environment, technology and the
CQ Weekly is a complete source for expert coverage of the U.S. Congress: status of bills, votes and amendments, floor and committee activity, and backroom maneuvering. Most useful for middle and high school students.
CultureGrams gives concise, reliable, and up-to-date state and country reports on 187 cultures of the world. Also includes recipes and famous people.
EBSCO Animals provides in-depth information on a variety of topics relating to animals. The database consists of indexing, abstracts, and full text records describing the nature and habitat of familiar animals.
Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia provides over 25,000 encyclopedic entries covering a variety of subject areas.
History
Resource Center: U.S. provides integrated access to over 1,000
historical primary source documents, more then 30,000 reference articles, and
over 65 full-text journal covering themes, events, individuals and periods in
History
Resource Center: World has information on the ancient
Mediterranean, Near East, Asia, Middle East, Latin America, the Middle Ages and
the Renaissance. From antiquity to the present, world history curricula is
reflected by content from over 2,000 primary sources, 25 reference titles and
from 110 academic journals.
MasterFILE Premier provides full text for nearly 1,950 general reference publications with full text information dating as far back as 1975. It also includes full text reference books, biographies, primary source documents, and an image collection of photos, maps and flags
Newspaper Source provides selected full text for 25
national (
NoveList K-8 contains materials for all K-8 grade
levels and includes picture books, children's chapter books and young adult
titles. Users can also browse hundreds of theme-oriented book lists for readers
at all grade levels through Explore Fiction, and look for award-winning and
recommended titles in Best Fiction. Many title records have direct links to Web
sites with information about the author or with teacher resource
materials.
TOPICsearch is a current events database that allows researchers to explore social, political & economic issues, scientific discoveries and other popular topics discussed in today's classrooms. It contains full text for over 64,000 articles from more than 3,000 diverse sources, including more than 1,500 full text periodicals.
Prepared by Vicky Dworkin,
Hawaii State Library-Edna Allyn Room for Children,
February, 2006