Internet-accessible commercial dbs

[KAREN SCHNEIDER]

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone else out there in web4lib world wants to
huddle on the current crop of Internet-accessible commercial databases,
particularly WebSPIRS, ProQuest Direct and FirstSearch.  We're looking
at all three, plus some other stuff (e.g., Counterpoint), while we try to
haul ourselves up to speed on Z39.50, GILS and who knows what else. 
We're now doing a trial of PD, have looked at FS and will look again, and
probably will do a trial of SP before decision time rolls around in 
mid-June.

In an ideal world, my guess is we'd select cafeteria-style from this
vendor and that and access the whole shebang through a Z39.50
server.  The reality is we're just coming up to speed on Z39.50 ("we"
meaning this contract library and the intrepid EPA "Computer People"
upstairs), and the vendors have displayed varying arrays of interest and
readiness in this respect.  FirstSearch may be the "readiest," but it
doesn't address the content we need as directly (some of it, yes).  Otoh,
we are exploring moving to a suite of Internet-accessible resources
(particularly full-text w/ or w/out graphics) in lieu of the suite of
CD-ROMs we now offer.

I have many thoughts/ideas/questions about these resources, but would
like to hear from others.  One thing that continues to float to the surface
is that with or without Z39.50  we do not want to install yet another pile
of separate clients.  E.g., ProQuest Direct... some good content, but
having yet one more piece of software to worry about is one thing we're
trying to get away from.  We'd rather get it through the WWW even if it
involves some loss of functionality (a loss felt more keenly than UMI than
by us, I suspect).  Even if we are still dealing with a pile o' databases, if
they are all WWW-accessible, we can have one page that points to
them.  Not exactly the ideal, but a lot closer than the interface dissonance
we now experience.  

So other thoughts?  

Karen G. Schneider
Region 2 (NY) EPA Library
schneider.karen at epamail.epa.gov
opinions mine alone