http://paulrallison.blogspot.com/2007/08/databases-and-research.html
The issue is, of course, complicated. The only way to keep this information locked and expensive is to claim that it is special, but I still need that to be demonstrated. Is it really true that the information in these databases is significantly more complex, thorough, considered than can be found elsewhere? What about http://FindArticles.com? Also, we need to consider how much an adolescent can comprehend in evaluating resources. I like the direction Susan Ettenheim was taking at the end of Teachers Teaching Teachers #66, where she tried to get folks to describe what it is in these databases that is unique. Oddly the response was a story about how someone (from Georgia?) had started calling them empty containers. Freeing the databases is important, but getting rich statistics, peer-evaluated articles... (and this is the list that I think needs to be developed) ... to our students is even more important, and may or or may not be related to the "free the databases" movement.
