[WEB4LIB] I need a favor

[Steve Herminghausen]

Allow me to address both questions.

We're a public library with access to IAC, EbscoHost, and ProQuest, and if I
had to answer a question about numbers of books being read I'd first turn to
any of these sources to find information published in print (and presumably
reviewed) before I tried a search engine.  Infotrac's (IAC) General
Reference Center Gold had some decent articles, but they looked somewhat
dated, and despite the indexing and cross references I had a hard time
finding what I wanted.  Ebsco's MasterFile Premier looked like it had more
current information (articles published in the last year or so based on
statistics from 1998 or earlier).  I didn't try ProQuest because my
experience is that our databases have more newspapers than national
journals. If I were to try a search engine, I might look at
http://www.google.com/unclesam which would give me more access to govt
documents, such as studies from the department of education.  If you have
access to American Demographics in some format, give it a try.

Now, to a related issue.  Both IAC and Ebsco have quite a few different
database packages available depending on what you want, and they have
different features.  Some offer emailing results, some have more content,
some allow results in PDF or citation format.  Some are annoyingly unique
when compared to other interfaces you use.  (Wildcard is ? not * or require
Boolean operators to be capitalized.) If I had to decide I'd first contact
each vendor and arrange a trial for at least a couple of weeks and get the
input of your users to find out what features you want.  You'll also want to
compare title lists and look at backfile availability.  

In short, it's like you're buying a car.  I may drive a VW Passat, but you
may be more interested in a VW Beetle.  They're both from the same vendor,
but they're markedly different vehicles.

Steve Herminghausen
Reference Librarian
Northwest Library
2280 Hard Rd.
Columbus, OH 43235
http://www.worthington.lib.oh.us


-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Hsieh [mailto:ffang at runner.csub.edu]
Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2000 11:37 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] I need a favor


Hello,

My boss wants me to explain and decide which periodical database
our school (a junior college) should subscribe to: H.W.Wilson, 
EBSCO host, and Information Access Corp.  I have tried Wilson Web, 
and EBSCO host,but not Information Access Corp (I have no idea 
about this one).  I know I like EBSCO host.  Will you please share 
your experience with me before I report to my boss?  Thank you very 
much.

Meanwhile, one instructor wants to find "statistical information on
NUMBER OF BOOKS PEOPLE, ADULTS OR CHILDREN OR ANY AGE GROUP, READ
IN A WEEK"?  Or, a statistical website providing that reading
statistical information.
I tried GOOGLE, METACRAWLER, YAHOO, but there was nothing.  All I
found was a reading statistics (list) of one individual and that
was not what he was looking for. Will you please give me some
directions?

Thank you.

Nancy Hsieh
PIS Library
ffang at runner.csub.edu

(661) 397-5230