Gianina and her peers daily use the Internet to complete homework assignments, after being instructed by their teacher on how to tell if a website contains credible information, she said.
But the Burbank Unified School District board of education is trying to change the way its students get their facts online. The board is supporting a newly introduced state bill that would require all public schools to provide their students with online library and research databases.
Assembly Bill 333, introduced by Assemblyman Loni Hancock, who represents the 14th district, near the San Francisco Bay area, would require the state of California to purchase and ensure that each district implement the use of online research databases such as LexisNexis for all grades, reducing student reliance on sites such as Wikipedia.com and Google.com as sources of information.
As of two weeks ago, the district began to provide the Encyclopedia Britannica online edition to all its students at the cost of $5,000 to $6,000 a year, Assistant Supt. Joel Shapiro said.
If the bill calling for online databases passes, the state will foot Burbank's bill for its inclusion in a subscription-based information pool to be used across California.
"What I think is most fascinating is 47 of the 50 states are already doing this," said Sue Boegh, director of educational support services.
The Assembly bill cites research that shows improved academic performance of students in other states who used online databases in their public schools.
Like the online encyclopedia, the bill suggests the database be used by students in all grades, but Penny Austin, librarian at George Washington Elementary, said the information contained on her shelves was accessed more often than the computers.
