TotemTom’s Talks

by Staff ◊ Oct 21, 2011

Well, folks, now that the kids are back to school and the homework assignments have begun, I think it’s a good time to talk about iCONN (www.iconn.org) – Connecticut’s ReSearch Engine. If you’re a student or the parent of a student, this is a website that should be right up there in your “Favorites” bar. It is funded by Connecticut tax dollars – your tax dollars – is maintained by the Connecticut State Library, and can be accessed using your library card number. It has two main components. The first, called ReQuest, is a statewide database of a majority of Connecticut’s libraries: public libraries, college libraries, and even some school libraries. But, the second component is the one that I recommend for students – it’s a huge collection of online databases that you can access directly from the top of the iCONN home screen, in the “Search Articles” box. This is where you can go anytime 24/7 and research both current and historical topics that students are likely to be assigned and find full-text articles from authoritative journals, newspapers, popular magazines, and specialized databases dealing with such things as science, health, business, law, and history. Unlike Google and other web-based search engines, iCONN searches only reliable and reputable sources and, because these databases are available only through subscription, most will not appear in the results of a standard web search. And, your tax dollars allow you to not only search, but download, print, and email your results so that you can use, sort, and store them in whatever format is convenient for you. 

Don’t miss out on this goldmine. (You don’t have a library card? Hamden residents can come to any of our three locations and get a card in a matter of minutes.)

Me, I’m always at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).