It’s 6 pm on Sunday. Your child has just informed you that he/she has procrastinated on their school project that is due tomorrow.

Insert O face emoji.

On top of not even starting this project, they inform you that they must have at least three peer-reviewed or primary resources, and that lovely handout that tells students where to search for these resources has disappeared into the black hole of their backpack.

Insert two O face emoji.

Don’t fret – Anythink databases to the rescue! One of the many great things your Anythink library card gives you access to is databases, located underneath articles, research, and more on the left hand-side of the Anythink website. In order to sign in to most databases, you must have your library card number. Altogether there are 46 databases that you can utilize, and within those 46, there are nine fantastic for student homework help. These databases help students in elementary, middle and high school, and provide a number of homework help tools. For example, students can research a number of topics and find primary and peer-reviewed resources; they can take practice tests or watch tutorials on a number of subjects; and they can find maps, photos and more. The following will highlight three homework databases and a comprehensive list can be found at the end.

TopicSearch

Audience: High school students

Summary: Find over 139,800 articles on current events topics like aging, crime, drugs, energy, health, human rights and world affairs, from over 4,800 sources, with 1,650 full-text periodicals.

Search tip: When searching this database add limiters (subject, date, document type) to receive the most relevant search results. For example, if I’m researching how eating habits affect present student test scores, I would limit my search by: subject (diet & nutrition), date (2010-2015), and document type (report).

Middle Search Plus

Audience: Middle school students

Summary: Middle and junior high school students can find historical essays, biographies, maps, images and more to help with school projects and research.

Search tip: When searching this database you can easily find primary sources by limiting publication type to “primary source document.” Remember, a primary source document is a document or physical object which was written or created during the time under study.

Primary Search

Audience: Elementary school students

Summary: Elementary kids can find articles on every subject (animals, art & music, health, history, people & places, sports, and stories) for their school projects.

Search tip: When searching this database, instead of doing a search, start by selecting a topic of choice found on the homepage – this will bring you the best search results.

The other homework databases get more specific and provide particular types of information, but are just as useful depending on the student assignment. They can be found listed alaphbetically here. 

• History Reference Center
• Infobase Ebooks
• Learning Express Library
• MAS Ultra – School Edition
• MasterFILE Premier
• Point of View Reference Center

Don’t forget: You can always visit your local Anythink and meet with a librarian to get further homework work. Happy researching!