WebFeat

WebFeat is a search engine that lets the user search up to 50 databases simultaneously on the Palm Beach County Library Website.

I searched for hometown news which in my case is the South Bronx. I did a title search for the phrase "south bronx", date range: 2008-2008, and selected all resources. Quite a few times the browser froze up and I had to close it down using the task manager -- what a waste of time that was!

Many of the databases returned zero hits. The greatest number of hits was on America's Obituaries & Death Notices (529 hits). The InfoTrac® Student Edition (87 hits) would not display -- another waste of time!

However, the Access World News (19 hits) did display. I read an article that alleged a school principal was getting teachers to "help" students find the correct test answers during the administration of a standarized test, High Test Scores, and Criticism, Follow a South Bronx Principal New York Sun, The (NY) - June 30, 2008.

Another story that caught my eye reported on protecting the environment, the community, and creating jobs in the South Bronx. One of the things it mentioned was a small project focused on creating "green roofs" -- covering roofs with soil and plants to help keep buildings cool, Sustainable South Bronx : Helping the Bronx Become a Sustainable Community New York Observer, The (NY) - June 23, 2008.

Using Access World News directly, I got 17 hits, but some did not have "south bronx" in the headline as I had selected. This was also the case, when using Access World News through WebFeat.

InfoTrac® Student Edition (87 hits) brought back hits outside of the target year (2008). I found no article that would open -- "page cannot be displayed" was all I got after trying on separate days to access the articles.

Even though the advanced search on InfoTrac General OneFile and on Access World News gives a more refined search, and dispite the problem accessing InfoTrac® Student Edition, WebFeat remains a good enough "quick and dirty" way of searching for information.