Summary: SearchBank and ProQuest Direct users?

[Emma J. Blagg]

Here's a summary of the responses (6 in total) to my request for libraries
to share their experiences of using SearchBank and ProQuest Direct:

A UK Librarian said that SearchBank's interface is easy to use and has a
fast response time: ProQuest Direct has suffered in comparison.

A US Librarian, whose library is planning to change from a text only version
of SearchBank to the web or windows version, said that they were happy with
the no. of full-text articles available and their main problems were
teaching users complex search functions.

A Canadian Public Librarian, whose library recently switched to the web
version of SearchBank, said although they lihe the product, they had soem
reservations notably coverage.  They say that IAC hasn't got the rights to
some major public library journals and in some cases the rights may be lost
and users are not informed (the cahnge can happen overnight). Canadian
publications are not as well represented as US ones and they may not have
the most current issues.  The range of periodical was felt to be impressive,
but not deep enough in the humanities and overall the range was too
regional, too US or trade based.

Overall, there seemed to be libraries using both services, ProQuest Direct
was generally felt to have better coverage and SearchBank a more user
friendly, quicker interface.

Emma Blagg
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Emma J. Blagg
FIDDO Project
Department of Information & Library Studies
Loughborough University
Leicestershire  LE11 3TU  UK
Tel:  +44 (0)1509 222177	      fax:  +44(0)1509 223053
email: e.j.blagg at lboro.ac.uk
http://dils2.lboro.ac.uk/fiddo/fiddo.html  
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