E-resources marketed direct-to-consumer?

[Sloan, Bernie]

I am looking for examples of Web-based full text e-resources that are being
marketed directly to the "consumer". (The term "consumer" can be applied at
a number of different levels, e.g., student, faculty member, college or
university adiminstrator.......in other words marketed to someone besides
the library).

Following are a few examples to give you an idea of what I'm looking for.
I'd appreciate hearing about other such services:

ProQuest Academic Edition -- For $19.95 per semester, a student can get
unlimited access to a collection of full text ProQuest resources. See the
following for more info:

http://ae.proquest.com/aegate/about/about.html

Campus Pipeline -- Campus Pipeline markets what they call "the first Web
platform for higher education. This platform revolutionizes the way higher
education builds relationships with its students, faculty, staff and
alumni." Campus Pipeline has a "Research Center" function, but the
information about this function is rather sketchy. Campus Pipeline appears
to be marketed to institutional administrators, and then faculty. See the
following for a reference to the "Research Center" function:

http://www.campuspipeline.com/whatwedo/daylife/daylife4.html

WebCT "WebCourselets" -- These resources seem to offer mostly textbooks, and
are marketed more towards institutional administrators, and then faculty.
They are integrated into an online learning package (WebCT). For examples of
content, see:

http://about.webct.com/library/content_gallery_index.html

Questia -- Questia is a very ambitous undertaking. The following statement
is taken from their Web site: "The Questia service enables students to
search, access and interact with thousands of important books and journals
from anywhere: from home, from the computer lab or anywhere else they
connect to the Internet. The Questia service will be live in early 2001 with
at least 50,000 of the most valued volumes in the liberal arts from the 20th
and 21st centuries (not including textbooks)." Additionally Questia aims to
have 250,000 volumes digitized within three years. As their Web site notes
"that's greater than the number of volumes in over 80 percent of all
academic libraries in the United States." It will be marketed directly to
students. For more on Questia see:

http://www.questia.com/

Thanks!!

Bernie Sloan
Senior Library Information Systems Consultant
University of Illinois Office for Planning and Budgeting
338 Henry Administration Building
506 S. Wright Street
Urbana, IL  61801
Phone:  (217) 333-4895
Fax:      (217) 333-6355
E-mail:  bernies at uillinois.edu