In exploring the different online resources, I am starting to appreciate the differences in what they offer to students. The World Book School Edition is a great starting point for straightforward general information on a topic. SIRS Discoverer is more open ended and lives up to its name in that it can take readers on interesting side trips about their topic. For example in looking up dolphins, one immediately encounters an article about "Cyberfin", a reality dolphin swim program! Article 5 is about dolphin communication. Discoverer is a nice way to surf the web about a topic and still know the information is reliable.
As a parent, I have often had to help a child who at 9:30 p.m. realizes he or she did not bring home the textbook and has an assignment to complete for the next day. This results in a hurried search on the internet to find the right map or history article to help. SIRS Discoverer's country facts and maps databases are a real find for this situation. I looked up Puerto Rico, where I spent a big part of my childhood, in the Country Facts and found it to provide a good summary and description of the island and its unique political situation.
The biographies section is good but I was disappointed there were no articles on Greg Mortenson or Paul Farmer. It did a nice job with Barack and Michelle Obama. It would have been useful if there was a built in feature to suggest closest correctly spelled name. It showed no articles for "Michele" Obama when I misspelled her first name, which seems like the kind of error that K-9 students might make.
You have discovered the purpose and riches of SIRS Discoverer! Thanks for your comments, Saila. You're right about the lack of spelling accommodation--that would be a nice feature. You can also find biographies simply by typing the person's name in the search box.
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