Dreadful Databases

I was excited to learn about federated searching today. I have a real love/hate relationship with databases. As a graduate student, I love the access to the hundreds of databases in the UBC system. I'm always able to find highly relevant, full-text articles for my research. Full-text is important to me, because my time is valuable and I hate being led on a wild goose chase following link after UBC e-link only to hit a dead end. Before entering UBC as a graduate student I was terrified of databases. I didn't even know what they were, really! In my undergraduate years (93-97) I never even knew they existed. I did all of my research through journals and books at the library. I think I'm not alone in my (prior) fear of databases. They are intimidating, and as Baule pointed out in his article Data Data Everywhere, they're awkward to use because of their specificity. It's no wonder that students tend to "satisfice," or find the path of least resistance and settle with mediocre information for assignments. I think we're all guilty of this! Google rocks.

But I was reflecting on my practicum at the local high school here, where I had the opportunity to give a ten minute mini-lesson on finding information for each classes' assignments. I pushed the online databases that were available to them (ThomsonGale and EBSCO) and no one went for it in their research! I think this had a bit to do with what Baule was talking about- Google is just easier- but as I was perusing the articles available on ThomsonGale and EBSCO, I realized it's because the information is presented dreadfully! At least with online web resources the students can find something that will reel them in- either it's formatted with lots of white spaces, the print is bigger, there are lots of interesting visuals, or the colour combination/background colour appeals to them. There could also be lots of different medias on a website- from auditory to video streams, and opportunity for social interaction through comments/feedback links and blog-type entries.

The information presented in databases on the other hand is just BORING. The articles seem to always be on a plain white background, they have tiny print, they lack any sort of media- at least, it's hardly integrated in the body of the article- they are just boring paragraph after boring paragraph of information. It's like a textbook digitized. What student would pick that over the exciting way websites present information?

If we as school librarians are paying the big bucks for online databases, I want to be darn sure that the kids are going to use it. Sure, there are databases that kick it up a notch higher than ThomsonGale and EBSCO like Searchasaurus, Primary Search, and Student Research, but even though their interface might have a touch more pizazz the content is presented in the same way: BORING! If anyone knows of a good database that would give a school library the best bang for their buck, I would love to hear about it.