Research databases for middle school

Databases are the research workhorses in many school libraries, increasingly taking the place of long shelves of reference books and allowing users 24/7 access to information on devices of their choosing.

Educators continue to stress the importance of authoritative sources and citations, while students are learning to pick up on the first whiff of “fake news.” Reliable, user-friendly databases are more important than ever.

Input from SLJ reviewers, as well as responses from an August online survey of independent school librarians, gathered by Selene Athas, director of libraries at Roland Park Country School in Baltimore, helped winnow the list of resources that are both scholarly and ease to use.

Teachers will approve of features such as links to standards and curriculum content, while students will appreciate intuitive search interfaces, clearly labeled results, the ability to drill down to specifics, and plenty of v