On-line database sources provide more current information than print sources such as Readers Guide. The school libraries will not always have hard copies of the articles found in Reader's Guide. They will, however, be able to access some of these citations full text from electronic resources. Some databases give immediate access to full text articles. Electric Library, InfoTrac, the Student Resource Centers and First Search are some of these databases.
Some databases provide pictures and maps.
Electric Library and the Student Resource Centers are examples. If the database is down or the Internet connection is not working, students can use the print volumes of Readers Guide to obtain keywords for future searches as well as specific citations. The citations can be located in the database after service returns because the databases are searchable by journal name and date as well as by keyword and subject. Databases are expensive, so we need to plan to take full advantage of them. User names and passwords are available for most of our database services to allow access from home computers.