Appendix A: Databases Searched

Academic Search Elite

This database accumulates journal articles in non-electronic and electronic journals, as well as articles from other periodicals. The information is reported to the user in a tabular format that is very hard to cut and paste into electronic documents.
http://www.ebscohost.com

AlphaPlus

AlphaPlus provides information and resources for adult literacy. AlphaPlus addresses literacy issues for four groups of learners of specific interest to this report: Deaf, First Nations, Francophone and Anglophone. It also provides access to information about learning disabilities among adult learners. This database is a good alerting service but many of the connections to other websites are incorrect; some vital information is missing; and the abstracts are too short.
http://alphaplus.ca/

CASAE

The Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education database provides links to a number of other websites but is somewhat disorganized and on some topics, is out-of-date.
http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/CASAE/maineng.html

CATALIST

The Canadian Network for Third Age Learning is a bilingual network of 50 organizations across Canada that fosters and promotes the learning of older adults through shared knowledge, expertise, research and resources. It also provides links to similar networks around the world.
http://dev.www.uregina.ca/catalist/

CISTI

The Canadian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information claims to be one of the world's major sources for information in all areas of science, technology, engineering and medicine. Unfortunately not enough of it relates to education.
http://cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/

ERIC

The Educational Resources Information Center database is vast and reaches back into the 1960s. It cross-references articles in many relevant journals and provides full text for some education-related reports that may not be published elsewhere. ERIC also commissions special “Alerts” which summarize specific and timely topics.
http://www.eric.ed.gov/

NALD

The National Adult Literacy Database is a single-source, comprehensive, up-to-date and easily accessible database of adult literacy studies, reports, programs, resources. services and activities across Canada. It also provides links to similar services in North America and overseas.
http://www.nald.ca/