Databases.
Now there’s a word to put the average person to sleep. However, I am here to convince you that it is, in point of fact, one of the most exciting words in the English language. You see, databases, when you’re talking about something you get from your library, is just a code word for website-so-awesome-you-have-to-pay-money-for-it. If you hop over to our Databases page, you’ll see what I mean.
Take, for instance, NoveList. I wrote a little about that database here, explaining how you can use it to find something great to read. But as you scroll down our database page, there’s all sorts of other cool sources. For students at home writing papers, there’s EBSCO MasterFILE for the articles your teacher wants you to cite, which is the sort of thing most folks expect to see on a list of databases. But there’s also a link to Consumer Reports on there, so you can research your next purchase even when the library is closed and you can’t get at our magazines. There’s also tons of genealogy stuff like Heritage Quest, Fold3, and Ancestry.com, which is available from home through April. You can also find how to fix your car (Chilton), learn another language (Transparent Language), and do some science experiments (Science Reference Center).
Databases. Give them a try, and check off another square on our community engagement “bingo” board.
Pretty exciting, right?
Shelia
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