Results of EbscoHost & ProQuest Satisfaction

[David Glick]

I apologize for not summarizing the results to the list sooner; I have 
too many hats to wear.

I received 12 responses to my query of how satisfied individuals are with 
EbscoHost and/or ProQuest.  Unless otherwise stated all references to 
ProQuest, EbscoHost and Searcbank are for the web version.

Four of the responses recommended that my institution evaluate IAC's 
Searchbank before we made a decision.  Unfortunately, we could not even 
consider that option because of the price.  Some of the comments on 
Searchbank follow:

Tacoma Community College preferred the level of indexing performed and 
the easy interface which has two ways of searching:  EZTrac and 
PowerTrac.  Searchbank's coverage overlaps Wilson's Humanities, General 
Science, and Social Science print indexes.

Thousand Oaks Public Library evaluated all three services and chose the 
UNIX version of InfoTrac (an IAC product).  Even though it was more 
expensive than the other two, its flexible search capabilities were the 
defining feature for them (e.g. able to view results by date and narrow 
with additional search terms or display arranged by subheadings or veiw 
related subjects).  They said they had a tough choice between EbscoHost 
and InfoTrac.

Ouachita Parish Public Library as a member of a consortium also evaluated 
all three products and at the advice of the selection committee, the 
consortium chose Searchbank.  They like IAC's customer support and IAC's 
willingness to work with a wide variety of needs for diverse systems.  

Five responses I received were from institutions that have EbscoHost.  

Gloucester County College Library liked EbscoHost fine.  Their only 
problem was that the user must print full-text articles a few pages at a 
time.  They chose EbscoHost because it was more affordable once they got 
in on a regionwide consortium.

St. Norbert College Library performed a comparison between EbscoHost and 
ProQuest.  The full-text of this comparison is available at   
http://www.snc.edu/~drewch/online.htm.  Another college performed a 
comparison between the two aformentiond services and Searchbank.  The 
results of this comparison are also available at this site.

Another academic library chose EbscoHost over ProQuest because in her own 
words "they are expensive."  She commented that they both have an easy to 
use interface. They are using the Windows interface for EbscoHost and 
commented how wonderful the tech support people have been at Ebsco.

I received four responses concerning ProQuest:

Thousand Oaks Public Library evaluated all three services and felt that 
ProQuest was a good idea that was not executed well.  They felt that it 
was difficult to narrow the search to get precise results and when a 
broad search was performed, they could only view 200 hits - in other 
words, only a couple of months worth of citations.  But what they 
disliked most was that when you looked at a citation, you could not 
return to the spot you were in the list of citations.  The interface 
returned them all the way back to the first search strategy they used. 

Robert Morris College Library chose ProQuest because they liked the 
quality of the product and ProQuest matched EbscoHost's price.  From 
their perspective, the indexing quality was better than EbscoHost and 
they liked the image delivery capabilities.  They liked the greater 
number of journals that EbscoHost offered and its interface but felt that 
the coverage ProQuest offered was a better fit for their periodicals 
collection.  It was a tough decision for them between the two products.

Trinity College Library also went with ProQuest because they felt the 
academic content was stronger, even though EbscoHost's interface was 
"universally felt to be superior."

And lastly, I received a comment from Humboldt State University Library 
which had evaluated EbscoHost and ProQuest and did not choose either.  
They stayed with their current service.  Everyone there liked EbscoHost's 
interface but did not like the pop content.  And their problem with 
ProQuest was "onscreen chargeback information" and the fact that they 
didn't have a good print in place.

FYI:
We chose EbscoHost for a number of reasons.  We liked its interface and 
the journal coverage closely matched our own holdings.  One of the major 
things that we didn't like about ProQuest was the screen which asked you 
a second time how you want to view a citation, abstract, or full-text.  
Although you have already chosen it once, it asks for it again and the 
second screen confused us, so we knew that our students would be 
confused.
Other than the interface problem and the fact that ProQuest was more 
expensive than EbscoHost, we based some of our decison on the evalution 
mentioned above.  See http://www.snc.edu/~drewch/online.htm.

Hope this summary helps.  I appreciate everyone's comments and good luck 
in your decisions.

If anyone has any further questions, please email me.

David Glick

David Glick
Huie Library
Henderson State University
Arkadelphia, AR  71999
(870)230-5322
FAX (870)230-5365
glickd at holly.hsu.edu