Databases

Its your friendly, neighbourhood teacher librarian here with some thoughts on databases and google!

When working with my partners for Assignment 3, Tosha and Jennifer Kennedy, Tosha inspired me with a resource titled, "Its google.com, not google.edu!"  Although this is something that, as teachers we all recognize, it is important to remember that our students will probably not make this distinction automatically.  When I ask my grade 6 and 7 students if they know that some of the information that they find on the internet is not true, they all answer yes, but they do not seem concerned with presenting false information in their projects.  The students of mine that come to the library to do research are quite used to me directing them to the Encyclopedia of BC online, or World Book online, (these sites are provided free by the Surrey School District), but the information they are looking for is often not in these databases.  In a perfect world, we would have access to fabulous databases on Freddy Adu (soccer star), Chris Brown (R and B singer and dancer - and boyfriend of Rhiana), and Trevor Linden (probably needs no expl.).  Unfortunately, when doing biographical research on people who are somewhat recently popular, students have no choice but to use a larger search engine such as google.  I have made an effort to stock my library with books on these recent popular icons (there is an awesome NFic series called "Hip Hop" by Mason Crest publishing that has titles such as Mariah Carey, LL Cool J, Chris Brown etc) but it is impossible to cover everyone.  In short, databases are best for the topics that they cover but we need access to more inclusive databases with current and popular topics and information to better serve our students.  Regarding the more current, popular topics I will continue to teach my students how to ethically and efficiently research on Google.