Tuesday, July 31, 2012

findingDulcinea to do research

Being a school librarian, I am often asked by both students and teachers alike ways to find materials to use for papers, speeches or even extra credit.  That is my job as a media specialist, to teach and help people sift through information and help people decide what is good and what is bad.  I came across a site called findingDulcinea, which according to the site is the librarian of the Internet.  It is used to teach people how to find good materials and information instead of having to sift and sort through thousands of websites.

In today's age, people automatically go to google to get their information.  Even I am guilty of googling something that I want to learn about fast, but, often, the information  isn't always credible enough to use for research or an accurate paper. Dulcinea offers viewers information about different search engines and alternative sites to use for  accurate and relevant information.

A database can cost a school district thousands of dollars.  Books are often outdated as soon as they arrive in the library. Using Dulcinea can teach patrons how to locate their materials through content specific web guides. Each guide has different tools for the learner.  The main page offers top stories and articles where patrons can start their journey.

Dulcinea has a sweet search engine, as it is called, directed for students.  Every website in the mix has been evaluated by educators for relevance and information. Within the search engine, there are a few content specific sites as well- Social Studies, Biographies and an educator site to teach skills to teachers.

My corporation has a few database subscriptions that have not been used but maybe a few times.  I am thinking of adding this as a potential site to obtain information and cancel my databases.  The money we spend on those databases could be used for something else we need, like maybe ebooks!  I am really glad I came across this site.  I am thinking it could do a lot to benefit my kids.

1 comment:

  1. Dear Jennifer,

    I use this search engine extensively myself and recommend it to all my college students. In addition, the Finding Dulcinea "On This Day" articles are great. (They now are being produced in conjunction with the NY Times Learning Network.)

    Take care.

    Dave Lambert
    http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/About+Me

    ReplyDelete

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