Need to do Research? Use a Database!

A database is a collection of information, which you normally can't get on the Internet. Sometimes the information is an electronic version of a book. Sometimes it's information that you can't get any other way.

A database might be:

• A multimedia encyclopedia
• A collection of magazine articles
• Company information
• Articles from scholarly journals
• Maps and geographic information
• Biographies of famous people
• Genealogical information
• Information about your favorite author
• Or almost anything else!

The top ten library databases right now are:

1. HeritageQuest
   Audience: Adult
   Description: A huge collection of genealogical resources, including copies of the US Census data from 1790 to 1930!

2. Biography Resource Center
   Audience: Middle school through adult
   Description: Biographies of people from ancient history to now. The information is drawn from 130 books published by Gale Group, from 265 magazines, and from Marquis' Who's Who. Find out about people by name, or by occupation, ethnicity or nationality. This is an electronic version of print resources, so this counts as a "book" for your bibliography.

3. Health and Wellness Resource Center
   Audience: Middle school through adult
   Description: One stop shopping for medical and health information. Need to know about a disease or condition? Want to find out about the drug your doctor just prescribed? Don't know what a medical word means? Want to find out what your risk of breast cancer is? This is the source to use!

4. Reference USA
   Audience: High school through adult
   Description: A nation-wide telephone directory, covering the United States and Canada. This includes both residential and yellow page information. You can also find out who lives close to an address. Includes EDGER information for business listings!

5. LearnATest
   Audience: Elementary school through adult
   Description: A test preparation program. Learn how to take a particular test, before you actually take it! Includes academic skills for all grade levels, firefighter/police/EMS, nursing, real estate, civil service, citizenship, Advance Placement exams, GED, cosmetology, and more!

6. Business and Company Resource Center
   Audience: Adult
   Description: One stop shopping for business information. Business news, company and industry rankings, market share data, financial reports and much more!

7. Literature Resource Center
   Audience: High school to adult
   Description: Find out about authors, books, stories and poems. Find literary criticisms. Check a timeline, and see what the world was like when a story was written. Find out where your favorite author will be speaking next!

8. Opposing Viewpoints
   Audience: Middle school to adult
   Description: Find out about social issues, such as capital punishment and terrorism. The perfect tool for a homework assignment, or if you need to "one up" your brother in law at dinner next week. This information is drawn from the "Opposing Viewpoint" books, and from magazine articles, so this counts as a "print" source for your bibliography.

9. Newsbank
   Audience: Middle school to adult
   Description: Archived copies of the Las Vegas Review Journal back to 9/26/1996, the Reno Gazette Journal to 1/1/1999, and a huge number of newspapers from all over the country and all over the world! This includes Noticias en Español, Spanish language papers!

10. Academic Search Elite
    Audience: High school through adult
    Description: Your source for scholarly articles. Access to nearly 3500 scholarly journals, including peer reviewed journals and full text articles.