This week we learned the importance of having periodical indexes and databases available in the library. I had used many databases during university, but had never seen them in use in elementary or high school. The databases made my research so much easier because I was able to quickly and easily search for an article on a topic I was researching or even search for a specific article. Once located, many of these articles were available as full-text and I could read them immediately.
Although my current school is K-12, we do not have any periodical indexes (print or online) or any databases. This means that students in elementary and high school are not using magazines or journals to conduct their research. An electronic database would be a powerful research tool for many grades in the school, but would be particularly useful to the high school students. It could provide them with the opportunity to learn two additional information literacy skills: using periodicals when researching and the ability to use an database properly. These skills will become increasingly important as they move towards university.
I tried to do some research into how much it would cost for our school to purchase one or two databases. It was difficult to find any information to even give a ballpark estimate. I even emailed a rep for one of the companies explaining the situation and asking for an estimate. I got no response. Other students taking this course explained that in the public system, usually the district purchases the databases for the district. Each district negotiates its price with the publisher, so each district may be paying a different price. One person said that he thought that they paid about $1 per student. I would guess at a small independent school, we would have to pay a lot more because we would not have nearly as many students using it. Even if we double it though, it would come to about $1000 for our school. This seems like something that should be a priority and could be prioritized for the next school budget. Unfortunately, I don’t think that this is in the school’s short-term or long-term plan yet.
Update- The rep from Proquest did get back to me!
ReplyDeleteThe Sirs Discover is a database which provides “carefully selected, 100% full-text articles and images from more than 1,900 domestic and international newspapers, magazines, and government documents, along with 9,000+ educational weblinks via the integrated Discoverer WebFind content set.”
For our school of 500 students, I was quoted $784.
ProQuest Central K-12 is a database which “delivers millions of articles from more than 8,000 full-text scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers. All via the award-winning ProQuest search engine. With ProQuest Central K12, you get more of what you need to serve high school and college-prep level programs.”
For our school of 500 students, I was quoted $3500.
So depending on the size and scope of the database, they can differ greatly in price!
What you can do in the short term is to use your charm and test drive a few of the products - usually you can negotiate a time period for a trial. It's worth a try and won't cost you anything. First things first - WB!
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