When it comes to helping researchers make sense of the major issues of the day, SIRS® Issues Researcher makes the grade by offering only the very best article selections from more than 1,600 sources—exploring social, scientific, health, historic, economic, political, and global issues.

Articles and graphics in SIRS Issues Researcher are carefully selected according to strict SIRS criteria for content reliability, relevance, and age-appropriateness. Titles include: American History, The Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Affairs, Global Viewpoint, Maclean’s, National Geographic, New Internationalist, Newsweek, Science News, and Time.

Users can easily retrieve information by subject heading, topic browse, and keyword searches. The articles are indexed according to Library of Congress-derived subject headings to ensure the best results can be printed, saved, and emailed.

New state and national standards search helps educators locate standards-aligned articles and other resources, which saves teachers time in the lesson planning process, and ensures that library resources are correlated directly to learning benchmarks.

Lexile Reading Levels have also been integrated into the product. Lexile scores match reader ability and text difficulty, allowing individualized monitoring of student progress.

SIRS Issues Researcher is available online through SIRS Knowledge Source®. Researcher content is as broad as it is diverse:

• Leading Issues provides instant access to information on nearly 100 of the most-researched social issues. Students and educators can easily access focused information on the major issues of the day, including editor-written background information, viewpoints within the issue, as well as numerous articles and graphics providing supporting information and context for the user.
• The World Almanac Excerpts contains information from The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Articles focus on world history, nations of the world, major international organizations, and all 50 United States.
• Focus on Terrorism connects students to the latest information on terrorism issues affecting the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, the U.S., and beyond. It includes articles, photos, websites, video and audio clips, and Flash animation.
• Maps of the World offers hundreds of full-color current, historical, and outline maps in an online reference almanac.
• Suggested Research Topics includessample keywords, subject headings, and topic browse paths linking directly to coverage of timely issues, providing ideas for research topics and increasing awareness of detailed subject headings. Also available in this section are Challenge Quests, presented monthly, which pose insightful questions with answers in the form of pathfinders, to encourage student research.
• Spotlight of the Month and ChallengeQuests presents a sampling of articles to encourage research and awareness of monthly topics, chosen for their timeliness and high interest.
• Top News Stories of the Day—the top national and global headline news stories are dynamically updated, delivering up-to-the-minute breaking news without leaving the security of SKS.