Iconn.org Connecticut’s Digital Library Martha Burr Library Media Specialist Farmington High School

What is Iconn.org? Statewide public library online supported through your tax dollars Available at schools, public libraries, and in homes Provides access to – Research databases & digital collections – Recommended websites organized by topic – Library web pages and catalogs throughout state

Allows you to search without a library card

A federated search allows you to search all resources at once.

Link to specific databases. (This is your most useful link. We’ll get back to this later)

Takes you to most popular magazines & To e-journal finder

Helps you locate specific journals, magazines & newspapers

Allows you to search for books and magazines in academic, public and school libraries throughout the state.

Link to specific Databases (Your most important link.)

This page is organized around general categories. Each link takes you to a unique digital collection/database.

What is a database? Information is purchased from original sources or written by database company. Information is previewed by information specialists to check for reliability Information is organized so that users can more easily access relevant information.

How do I use databases? Databases have similar characteristics They organize content around subjects They organize around date of publication They allow you to limit your search so you can target most relevant information They allow you to organize your results and then share them digitally Let’s look at an example: Infotrac Student Edition

Publication Search: allows you to browse & select specific publications Basic Search: Most like Google but check limiters

Infotrac Student Edition Facts: 1100 resources Provides a list of all publications available through this source. Most databases provide such a list.

Ways for students To read, save & share document Establish extensive limiters to narrow search

Let’s Play! That’s the only way to get comfortable with these tools.

Most useful databases for high school students? Infotrac Student Edition Academic Onefile iCONN Newsstand Health and Wellness Resource Center

Benefits and Disadvantages to Databases Benefits Access to a wide range of high quality resources Resources have been previewed & organized Familiarity with one database helps skill in searching others Disadvantages Successful searching takes practice Each database is slightly different Students are often more concerned with speed rather than quality Databases are not as intuitive as Google