Opening
Bibliographic Information:
InfoTrac Student Edition /
(produced) by Gale Cengage Learning
(produced) by Gale Cengage Learning
(Access through Humboldt County Library)
Cost Unknown – Contact the company directly
2011
Body of Content
Summary: This
is a high-level database resource for high-school students. The formats are wide – allowing students to
search within magazines, newspapers, standard reference books, along with more
recent formats like podcasts. The
content is also diverse – helping students find resources throughout the
majority of their coursework subjects– containing information on arts, science,
history, sports, popular culture, etc.
The Student Edition searches a total number of nearly 16 million
articles as part of its search matrix.
With the articles hailing from the years between 1980 and 2011, the
database represents a good source of current information. The database is very flexible for users – as
the site contains a language toggle button to over 30 languages that are
possible for information retrieval. The
site contains a simple design – with a homepage where the user does not need to
scroll to perceive all options available to them (Gale, 2011).
Critique: The
search methodology is more professional than the Junior Edition. And as such, the Student Edition contains
more options – showing a more academic approach to research. The site does contain a “basic search”. But more interesting, the site contains an
“advanced search” option presenting an excellent variety of retrieval options
for the user. For instance, the advanced
methodology allows for searches according to keyword, abstract, full document,
title of document, publication language, etc. – and contains further helps such
as publication date and word count – all of which provide the user the option
of creating a Boolean, word-string search with keywords –or a Boolean,
organizational-string search with structural data. The user’s previous research and content knowledge
of their topic could certainly help them with so many options. At the very least, it does not handicap the
users – but allows them to search how they best see fit.
Further search limits include searching only peer-reviewed publications,
only full-text documents, and more interestingly, only documents with images. As a modern database, Student Edition allows
for faceted search results – which can receive further specificity and
limitations post-search. Overall, this database presents a very clear, clean,
and searchable database that any high school student could employ in their
research projects.
Teaser: The convenience of Google – plus the expertise of a cache
of database resources.
Information about the Author: See entry #47.
Supplemental Material
Genre: Reference
Curriculum Ties: Library – information
retrieval, electronic databases
Booktalking Ideas: 1) Did
you know that you can search within different format categories?
Reading Level: The database is intended for
use in high-school settings – for ages (15-18).
Challenge Issues and Defense: Given the educational format
and the types of articles as academic in nature, a lack of challenges is
expected.
Personal Reasons for Inclusion: I
wanted to include a few databases – unfortunately, the local library did not
have much of a selection, though this database seems of high quality.
Last Thoughts
References:
Gale.
(2011) InfoTrac Student Edition (Homepage) [Database]. Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=STOM&u=locpac_hucl
Listening to (Music):
Artist – Phil Wickham/ Album – “Heaven and Earth”
