Hi. I want to make a Reader's advisory for my library. I want to students to build the database of books, using information like Genre, Setting, Characters, Difficulty, etc. Then other students who want to choose a book can find one by answering questions about what kind of book they would like. Is this even possible with Scratch? Can I set up a database like this in Scratch?

I think so, but you would have to create a separate article for each book.
I hope I didn't misunderstand your question!

If you wanted a search engine, it could go like this…

———————–\______
( When This Sprite Clicked )

( ask (what would you like to search by?))
Remember to make it so the stage asks it.

/if <answer = Genre>?
| (ask (which Genre?)) P.S: You may want to add a visible list or something so that students can add answers and such so they are visible to select.
|/if <answer = Comedy>?
|| (add (blah blah gargle) to ( Comedy Novels V) Repeat that until all have been named.
|| (show list (Comedy NovelsV)) The letter “V” is used to show a drop down menu.
Continue adding to this script until all ideas have been named…

You can do this with difficulty too, but like this!
———————–\______
( When This Sprite Clicked )

( ask (what would you like to search by?))
Remember to make it so the stage asks it.

/if <answer = Difficulty>?
| (ask (Easiest or hardest?)) P.S: Do the same thing with this as last time.
|| /if <answer = Easiest>?
|| (delete all of (Difficulty List))
|| (add (1 The Derpus Chronicles 2.) to (Difficulty list)
Do that in the same fashion until all books are listed in order of easiest to hardest.
For Hardest, It's the same thing with the list but in reverse.

It goes the same way with “Setting” and “Characters”, but to make it easier on yourself, you may just want to list with more general terms such as “ Knight” or “Detective” for “Characters” and “Grassy Meadow”, or “Some Guy's Roof” for “Setting”.

It is currently impossible to create a safe list with current scripting available, from past experience, due to lack of cloud lists. You could, on the other hand, make a fresh account (but make sure you have something to remember the password with, in case you forget!), and name it something like “Our Library's Student Account”, unless thats too long. That way, you could edit it at will and revert it, but no wandering users could mess around with it.

I hope this helped!

mario91100

(P.S: There may or may not be a simpler way to do this. I dunno.)