Skip to Main Content

Grade 6 Research Toolkit

Sixth Grade Research Toolkit

Information Sources

Now that you've learned about what the letters of TRAC stand for, let's see how it relates to different information sources. Here's a reminder of the three most common information sources for research:


Books

When you're thinking about books for research, think about nonfiction or reference books that you'd find in a library or classroom. Books with publishers and authors that make them reputable. 

 

 


Online Databases

Online databases are like virtual libraries that provide a variety of magazine, newspaper, and reference information and much more. What makes databases special is that they are collections of published sources AND the database has a publisher, so they're double trustworthy. Databases are accessed through the library website because we have subscriptions to them (which make them different from websites).


Websites

Websites could be any source you find through a regular web search, from National Geographic to Wikipedia. Websites can be created and published by anyone with the knowhow.