Are You Using Databases Yet?

Libraries bridge time in a variety of ways. Library collections are a bridge to our past and our future. Collections in the Children's, Teen, and Adult departments bridge the span of our reading lives. Libraries also provide information resources for the span of research skills that patrons enjoy using.

To provide resources in a variety of formats, the library offers similar information in multiple formats, each format having different and unique strengths. An example of this in the Magazines and Newspapers Center is the provision of both print and database reference sources.

Are you using these databases? You can see a complete list of databases that the library provides by going to Articles and Databases from the library's Web site.

There are a variety of ways to explore and learn how to use a database at the library. You can explore on your own through the Web site. You can work with a reference librarian at the reference desk. You can also come to one of the library's free training classes.

As you learn more about using databases, you will discover some advantages to finding information this way. Databases provide the ability to quickly search for information in multiple sources and then show results in ways that can be manipulated. Information can often be printed, saved to a storage device, or e-mailed to you. Looking at database results also gives you feedback on how you are asking your original question and how you might change the wording of your question to get more precise answers.

If you have a question that you want to answer, the library probably subscribes to a database that will be of interest to you. Databases provide another important method to give you the information that you want. There has never been a better time to explore them.