EBSCO Databases

WHAT IS IT?
Think of the EBSCO Database as one big online library. Within that library are several sections. And within those sections are thousands and thousands of books, magazines, newspapers, etc. -- all online and at your fingertips and easy to access and search.

HOW TO DO IT:
On the library website, click on the Reference tab and then click on the EBSCO icon. The username and password are right there, so there is nothing to memorize. Once you login, select any of the databases based on your grade level to do your search.

Simple Search - Searchasaurus is recommended for elementary students. Kids Search is recommended for K-8. Student Research Center is recommended for high school students. Here you simply type in your search term and click Go or Search to show a list a books or articles on the topic. You also have the options to search a dictionary, encyclopedia, or pictures/images. Click Print or Email (Save or Add to Folder). Do not print unless you click that button. In Kids Search and Student Research Center you can change the language, but it puts everything on the page in a different language...except the article.

HTML Full Text means that the information is shown as a simple word processing document. PDF Full Text means that it is shown exactly how it looked in the book or magazine complete with art and photos. When you open a source it shows your search term in bold. Click Citation to get all the information for a bibliography or works cited. An abstract is just a summary of what the article is about.

Advanced Search - Choose EBSCOhost Research Databases. Here are all thoses "sections" in the library. Scroll through the list and find a "section" or database that relates to your topic. Click on it and search. It will narrow your search, and you can click on more than one database to search at a time.

Book Collection: Nonfiction, History Reference Center, Literary Reference Center, and Science Reference Center are special purchase databases for our library. They contain many more articles and online books than the average database and are recommended for research. These articles can be translated to other languages.

In addition to print, email, save, and add to folder, other tools include cite (for ready-made bibliography), export, permalink, translate, bookmark and listen.

WHAT TO DO WITH IT:
Anytime you need a reliable internet source for research, you should use a database search. All books and articles are valid and trustworthy and less likely to have biased opinions or inaccuracies. Colleges encourage database use (some assignments are based solely on the database) and rarely ever will allow a random internet article because they are less reliable.

Using library research databases will give you higher quality, more focused results than you will find by only going to a web search engine such as Google or Yahoo.