Thing 9: Databases and Search Tools

I am thrilled that you asked us this question in this forum.  I am fortunate enough to have a Superintendent who really supports our online access here at TAE and we are lucky enough to have a budget for databases in addition to those supplied by NOVEL.  We have several between the high school and the middle school which include Biography Reference Center, World Almanac, Geography & Culture, Culturegrams, Science Power, World Book, and EBSCO's Ultra package.  I highly recommend the Ultra package at the high school level.  It is extremely affordable and really gives students that 'college' experience when it comes to searching and finding articles.  We've had it for three years now and teachers and students alike are thrilled with the variety and materials we are able to find within the database.  In my opinion, it definitely offers more than the NOVEL databases and is well worth any extra cost. 

At the high school we use EBSCO a lot and I have the kids do an entire unit on searching including advanced search features like full text, date range, using subject terms, and peer reviewed articles.  I've also taken the Google PowerSearching class and found it extremely helpful and a great resource.  In fact, I've shown it to my kids within the searching unit.  They especially love the part where you can drag in a picture and find where it is from and the color select on image searches!  I highly recommend this class to all of you.  It takes a bit of time, but it's well worth it. 

I haven't used the custom Google search feature much.  In fact I'm preparing some links for Regents prep so I think I will try that out and post it to my webpage at www.heightsschools.com/taelibrary.  Hopefully it will be a hit. 

I just used instaGrok with my freshmen to get background information on their unit papers.  It was a great hit, especially with those visual learners.  Packs a lot of bang for the buck and they liked the notes section (of course).  I have recommended SweetSearch to the social studies teachers especially and I'll see what feedback that receives soon.  We also use Only2Clicks which is a favorite among faculty here.  It's easy and let's you post lots of stuff in a great visual format.