Web of Science

[David Stern]

Yale has been using WoS since January as part of a larger NERL
consortium.  We had initially subscribed for five simultaneous
users.  We had a five user CD-ROM LAN before this that was accessable
from five library locations.  It required enormous staff resources
to remain stable due to the usual CD-ROM hardware problems.

The users LOVE the ability to access this product from labs, offices, 
and dorms.  And from home using a valid PPP connection.

We have recently increased the number of simultaneous users to seven
since we were hitting the wall frequently after only one month of use.

The interface still has some problems ... the need to take two extra 
steps to mark and prepare records for saving/printing, the lack of 
boolean operators in Citation searching ... but the ability to search
all years at one time has been a wonderful improvement.  Response time 
has not been a problem (yet).  We expect the system to improve over time
through user feedback.
  
Is it worth it?  Tough question.  How do you measure the "value" of
great P.R., new and innovative distributed search options, researcher
satisfaction, etc?  I would think that it would be wise to seriously 
consider this tool as one of a number of future interdisciplinary 
gateways to full text resources, and for that reason alone it may be 
worth the service in the future.  Of course it will need to be supplemented
with more general and more specific indexing and abstracting tools for
adequate coverage in many situations.  It is costly, but there certainly is
great value to the product.





>I regret beating a dead horse, but I would like to hear what 
>librarians who have subscribed to Web of Science are hearing from 
>their patrons.  We have looked at it at Auburn, and for the moment have 
>decided to stay with our locally mounted Science Citation Index.
>
>Is WoS getting used?  Is it worth the price? 
>
>Thanks,
>
>Andy Wohrley
>
>Andrew Wohrley
>Science & Technology Department
>Auburn University Libraries
>http://www.auburn.edu/~wohrlaj
>wohrlaj at lib.auburn.edu
>
David Stern
Director of Science Libraries and Information Services
Kline Science Library
219 Prospect Street
P.O. Box 208111
New Haven, CT  06520-8111

phone:  203 432-3447
fax:  203 432-3441
email:  david.e.stern at yale.edu