Databases - The District's Digital Library: 

Most students, when they have to find information about something, go directly to Google or Wikipedia. For most things, this isn't an issue. But if you are doing research for school, you need to go to reliable, trustworthy, accurate sources. Your teachers are expecting that you will use academic resources. In a library, that would mean using the catalog and finding books and reference books. These books have undergone fact checking and are considered reliable. When you Google it or go straight to Wikipedia, you do not have the level of reliability you would have with a book or reference book. It would be on your to evaluate your sources (and that is a whole different lesson).

LAUSD subscribes to a variety of databases. Even though you will access these databases online, they are not considered websites. If you Google a topic, your results will not include these database articles. They are exclusive to their subscribers. So, by using the databases, you have a HUGE reliable reference library at your fingertips. 

On this page, you will find tutorials showing you how to access the databases from this website and from Schoology. You will find tutorials that will give you an overview of some of the databases available to you. Each database functions in a different way. Find the one that works for you and use it to your heart's content.

Tutorials that will show you how to navigate different databases: