[WEB4LIB] RE: cross-database search

[Karen Harker]

I agree that there may be both advantages & disadvantages for
affiliation with a vendor.  Even now, ScienceDirect (Elsevier's portal)
still isn't OpenURL enabled, so there is no linking to full-text outside
of Elsevier products.  Furthermore, there is the obvious danger of
getting all your content from one source.  
 
I think these (and probably many others) need to be weighed in light of
your own clients' needs (our clients use Elsevier products heavily) and
any constraints faced by your library.
 
 
 
Karen R. Harker, MLS
UT Southwestern Medical Library
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, TX  75390-9049
214-648-1698
http://www.swmed.edu/library/

>>> Jim Campbell <campbell at virginia.edu> 11/15/02 12:16:12 PM >>>
The September 15 issue of Library Journal has an excellent article by
Mary
Jackson on "The Advent of Portals" which spends some time discussing
cross-database searching and has a useful list of vendors. In our
investigations
here I've been impressed by MuseGlobal, by Fretwell-Downing, and by
what I've
seen of the new Sirsi product to be released early next year, as well
as by
EnCompass and the ExLibris Metalib.

I'm a little suspicious of claims that affiliation with a given data
vendor make
a product such as EnCompass more desirable. I'd be afraid they'd give
in to the
temptation to give an advantage to that vendor's products, or that we'd
see in
this new area what we've already seen in the competition among the
database
vendors, a refusal by one vendor to let their data play well with
someone else's
product.

- Jim Campbell

Digital Access Coordinator
and Librarian for German
University of Virginia Library
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4112
Voice: 434-924-4985  ~  FAX: 434-924-1431
E-Mail: campbell at virginia.edu 






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