Destiny, Research & Resources

Destiny

Destiny is the Sequim School District's online card catalog. At the high school level, it allows users to search from a selection of our books as well as search all of our online resources, which are credible and reliable. These online resources also include several accommodation tools such as the ability to read aloud to a student, translate articles to other languages, and provide articles at varying readability level.

Using Destiny's "One Search" to Search a Variety of Reliable Databases:

  • Log in to Destiny using your computer login
  • Catalog
  • Power
  • Type in a key word or phrase
  • Scroll down and click on “Include Online Resources”
  • “Select All” if you wish
  • “Search”
  • “Get Results”—You may need to click on this a couple of times
  • Click on the GREEN CHECK MARK “Show” to get the articles and a brief summary
  • If you no longer want articles from that site, click the red x “Hide”


Research & MLA Information

In order to access our electronic resources you must log in to Destiny first using your computer log in and password.
ForProQuest &SIRS Discoverer, clickhereand go to the Advanced Search for detailed options.

Research Tips

  • Research and Citation Resources:Purdue OWLorMrs. Rapelje's MLA Format Overview
  • Citing in Word (Office 2010): You can choose the proper citation style (e.g. MLA), then choose the down arrow next to "Insert Citation" and choose "Add New Source". Fill in the appropriate boxes as shown in the image below on the right
  • Online Citation Makers:EasyBib or Citation Machine
  • Note: Most of the electronic resources above provide the citation for you!

How does one go about finding information?

Use the Big6 Research Steps:

Task Definition

What are you supposed to find/do?

What information do you need?

Develop questions to help guide you.

Information Seeking Strategies

What sources can you use?

Location and Access

Where/How will you find/contact these sources?

Is the source reliable? SeeEvaluating Sources.

Use of Information

How will you record the information you’ve found?

Remember to cite all sources.

Synthesize (Organize)

What is your final product?

Did you give credit to your sources?

Evaluate

How will you know that you’ve done your job to completion?

What would you do differently to improve your efficiency?


What does it mean to evaluate a source?

Challenge and Question Information

  • Do not assume that something is truthful just because it is published. It could be based on incorrect or outdated information or poor logic or narrow opinions.
  • Check to see if there is a reliable author or organization.

Check the Domain Ending: No matter where you gather information, it is always important to determine whether the source is reliable or not.

Not as reliable:

.com = commercial (anyone can have this so be careful!!!)


More reliable:
.edu = education

.gov = government

.org = organization

.mil = military

.int = international

ending in a country's abbreviation (e.g. .us = United States)