[WEB4LIB] ProQuest vs. EBSCO Host

[Stacie Renfro]

Hi Stacy,

We use both of these databases because we receive them for free through the
New York School Library System (our institution consists of a graduate
school of education and a pre K-8 laboratory school).  Therefore, we are not
receiving the packages with the most academic research options. New York
Public Library also offers access to both (free on the web with an NYPL card
number), and I used to work for NYPL as well.

Of course, the journals covered are somewhat different and somewhat the
same.  We like Proquest because it includes the New York Times (full text
for the past few months).  We usually use these databases only when they
offer some full text that WilsonWeb's Education Abstracts does not offer, or
when we need a database with a kid-friendly interface option.  I am often
pleasantly surprised to find that Proquest has something we need in full
text.  I rarely find this to be the case with Ebsco. Proquest's
full text offerings go back (in general) to dates much earlier than Ebsco,
or anything else we use.

Both Ebsco and Proquest seem to be pretty user-friendly.  We have had long
periods of technical difficulties with Proquest that we have not had with
Ebsco.  We order our print journals through Ebsco, and they are now offering
SOME (very few, actually) of these journals for free in electronic format.
These journals will be linked from the EbscoHost database, and we will be
able to use static URLs to them for our library catalog.  A recent talk with
an Ebsco rep also revealed that they will also include an icon in
the database to let the user know when the institution owns a journal in
print.

Stacy, feel free to call me if you'd like more info.  I think we are sort-of
neighbors here in New York.

Stacie Renfro
Reference Librarian
Bank Street College of Education Library
srenfro at bnkst.edu
tel: 212-875-4456

----- Original Message -----
From: Stacy Pober <spober at manhattan.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 1999 4:49 PM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] ProQuest vs. EBSCO Host


> We currently use UMI/Bell & Howell's ProQuest as one of our online
> databases, but we're contemplating a switch to the EBSCO equivalent,
> EBSCO Host.
>
> Have any librarians out there used both?  How do they compare in ease of
> use, coverage, speed, etc.?
>
> --
> Stacy Pober, Information Alchemist
> Manhattan College Libraries
> spober at manhattan.edu
> http://www.manhattan.edu/library/
>