Britannica Annals of American History

Bibliographic Information: Britannica Annals of American History. http://america.eb.com/failedlogin?target=/. Encyclopedia Britannica.

Plot Summary: Britannica’s Annals of American History is part of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and contains some materials dating all the way back to 1493.  The database chronicles the American story through more than 2,100 entries containing speeches, biographies, poems, editorials, photographs, essays, and sound clips.  America’s rich history is full of stories to be discovered.

Critical Evaluation: N/A

Reader’s Annotation: Follow the story of America, from discovery to present day with Britannica’s Annals of American History.  

Information about the database: Content in Britannica’s Annals of American History can be traced back to Edgar Allan Poe, President Barack Obama, Malcom X, Madeline Albright, and many other important figures in our nation’s history.  The Encyclopedia Britannica has led the educational publishing world bringing knowledge worldwide through various media (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.).  

Genre: Database

Curriculum Ties: This database can be used in any class in which research is conducted.

Booktalking ideas (one or two): N/A

Reading level/Interest age: Middle and High school grades

Challenge Issues: N/A

Why I chose this database: I chose this database because of their longevity.  The Encyclopedia Britannica has been around a long time, so the brand is pretty well-known.  The Annals of American History will offer a focus on American History that will be useful to students of all ages.  

References:
Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.) Britannica Annals of American History. Retrieved from  
http://america.eb.com/failedlogin?target=/
 

EBSCOhost

Bibliographic Information: EBSCOhost. http://search.ebscohost.com/. EBSCO Publishing.

Plot Summary: EBSCOhost strives to provide researchers with the latest and best information for their research needs.  Used in schools, universities and colleges, hospitals and medical institutions, corporations, government institutions, and public libraries.  Users can access magazines and academic journals at their institutions covering a wide range of content for free.

Critical Evaluation: N/A

Reader’s Annotation: Turn to EBSCOhost for your research and academic needs.  Through their platform you have access to more than 375 full-text databases, and more than 3000,000 ebooks and audiobooks.  

Information about the database: EBSCOhost is an entity of EBSCO Publishing, which carries other products to assist the education, medical, government, business, and library fields.  EBSCOhost receives around 100 million hits a day from a wide audience.  They offer quality material to answer the research needs of its users (EBSCO, n.d.).

Genre: Database

Curriculum Ties: This database can be used in any class in which research is conducted.

Booktalking ideas (one or two): N/A

Reading level/Interest age: 14+

Why I chose this database: This database offers a valuable resource for student research needs.  Their huge database exposes students a plethora of academic resources from various fields.  

Challenge Issues: N/A

References:
EBSCO. (n.d.). About us. Retrieved from http://www.ebscohost.com/about-us. 

JSTOR

Bibliographic Information: JSTOR. www.jstor.org. ITHAKA.

Plot Summary: The purpose of JSTOR is to provide teachers, students, and scholars access to more than 1,500 academic journals and over one million primary sources.  Content on JSTOR covers over fifty disciplines and material from over 800 publishers. JSTOR provides trustworthy academic material for patrons in schools, public, or university libraries to use in their research efforts.

Critical Evaluation: N/A

Reader’s Annotation: JSTOR is a fantastic, trustworthy resource for all of your research needs.  You can access over 1,500 academic journals and over a million primary source documents in our database.  

Information about the database: William G. Bowen created the idea for JSTOR as a solution to the issue with storing the large amount of academic journals in the limited spaces of college and university libraries.  Bowen decided that the best solution was to digitize the journals and store them in a centralized location accessible to libraries and their patrons.  The benefits of electronic journals is it frees up much needed space, saves on cost, is never lost, and available to more people at any given time (JSTOR, n.d.).  

Genre: Database

Curriculum Ties: This database can be used in any class in which research is conducted.

Booktalking ideas (one or two): N/A

Reading level/Interest age: 14+

Challenge Issues: N/A

Why I chose this database: I chose this database because it offers access to academic journals, books, and primary sources to aid student research needs.  


References:
JSTOR. (n.d.). About. Retrieved from http://about.jstor.org/about 

SIRS Renaissance

Bibliographic Information: SIRS Renaissance. http://ars.sirs.com/. ProQuest.

Plot Summary:SIRS Renaissance is a database geared towards the Arts and Humanities fields.  It provides access to more than 1,200 journals (domestic and international), magazines, and newspapers from 1983-present.  Topics covered by the database include architecture and design, culture, literature, multimedia, music, performing arts, philosophy and religion, and visual arts (ProQuest, n.d.).  

Critical Evaluation: N/A

Reader’s Annotation:  SIRS Renaissance provides access to searchable full-text articles, magazines and newspapers in the Arts and Humanities field.  

Information about the database: Content in SIRS is reliable, relevant, and age-appropriate, and indexed by Library of Congress subject headings.  Teachers are able to search for standards-aligned articles, and aggregate search results by Lexile scores which aids in their differentiation of instruction.  

 

Genre: Database

Curriculum Ties: This database can be used in any class in which research is conducted.

Booktalking ideas (one or two):N/A

Reading level/Interest age: Middle/High school grades

Challenge Issues: N/A

Why I included this database:  SIRS Renaissance focuses on the arts and humanities disciplines and provides access to journals, magazines, and newspaper articles.  This database also serves teachers, in that they are able to aggregate materials by Lexile level, which helps them differentiate their instruction.  

Resources:

ProQuest. (n.d.) Sirs Renaissance. Retrieved 7 May 2013 from

    http://www.proquest.com/en-US/catalogs/databases/detail/sirs_renaissance.shtml