Gale Opposing Viewpoints

Title - Gale Opposing Viewpoints
website - http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/?userGroupName=orange_main

Content - Linked to the OC Public Libraries Website, Opposing Viewpoints contains arguments on all the latest social issues of the day from both sides of the issue.  As many teens have to develp viewpoints papers in high school, this makes Viewpoints a very useful tool for teens to be able to develop an argument on any given topic.  One such issue is Animal rights.  Many people today are arguing whether animals should be given the same protections as people.  They summarize the arguments at the link to each debate.  In this instance they present one side of the argument that states that all animals are part of the same evolutionary chain.  The other side of the argument is that animals certainly lack some of the spirit, mental abilities and other qualities of humans. Therefore animals should be able to be used in some circumstances that people should not.  The site then presents several differnt articles that present in an intellectual argument, their side of the issue.  The site contains almost all of the major debates of the day, from arguments about the death penalty, to abortion, to marijuana legalization.

Cite Review - The content of the site is amazing for finding stuff for papers, especially position papers that are frequently given to high school juniors.  It allows people do to a lot of research and have several different articles from both sides of a position.  The site is easily broken down into sections so one can find the argument they are discussing quite easily.  If there is one complaint I have to the site is that it has a limited usability for people.  It works as well as the mission books that are contained at the library, where they are used for a couple of months each year as a new group of fourth graders are doing their missiong project, and then they are neglected for the other nine months.  However, as it is something that comes up frequently in school projects, it is a very useful site overall for the library to be providing to the kids who need this information.

Annotation - Should we maintain the illegality of Marijuana, as the drug can do irreperable harm to teens and others, causing them to withdraw from the community; or should we regulate the drug, making sure that a clean product free of poisons is put out on the market and tax it thereby creating a new source of revenue for people and governments?  Find this and many other things to debate in the Gale Opposing Viewpoints database.

About the Cite - Gale, the company that does the development of the site considers itself to be among the premeir webdesigners when it comes to creating e-resources for libraries and schools.  The company maintains more than 600 databases online for libraries and schools to use on a variety of different topics.  Some of their more famous databases include Primary Source Media and Macmillan Reference USA. 

Genre -
Database

Curriculum Ties -
Review the site in advanace of Juniors and Seniors writing position papers in school.

Booktalking ideas -
N/A

Reading Level -
Grade 9 +

Challenge Issues -
None

Why Included -
I wanted to include a database that was offered at the Library System that I worked for.