ProQuest newspaper problems (when is full-text NOT full-text)

[Stacy Pober]

I can understand that different sources might provide them with 
different parts of their coverage for a title, but they provide
the title through a single interface and IMO the list should have 
consolidated the sources so that the total coverage was listed.  

But that's not the major problem, since most of the users are not 
going to look at the title lists in any case.  They're more for 
librarian and back office use.  

The main problem is that when you use ProQuest's normal search 
feature, you will not have a hotlink to a good portion of the 
articles in full-text that ARE in the database.  I'm not talking
about Dear Abby or the comics, but news articles that UMI has
the rights to and provides users access to with their 
"for publication" search.  Why have full-text that is only
available by date browsing but not by keyword searching?

It's not deliberate, it's a bug.  But the annoying thing for 
me is that it's a bug that they have been alerted to half a
year ago, and they've taken no steps to fix it. 

Stacy

> Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 18:20:59 -0400
> From: Barbara Gellis Shapiro <barbara at gate.net>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
> Subject: Re: ProQuest newspaper problems (when is full-text NOT
> Message-ID: <39E3964B.1580515F at gate.net>
> MIME-Version: 1.0
>  full-text)
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> 
> The conflicting information, is likely correct as stated. I worked in
> newspaper libraries for many years, and am aware that the articles get
> licensed to be sold in various formats. The ProQuest product likely
> purchases rights to republish from more than one source, read this to
> mean that the source is not directly from the newspaper itself. So they
> may get some of the Christian Science Monitor (etc) from a source that
> is selective, or abstracted, and covers a particular group of dates, and
> from a second source that is complete (see note later) with a second set
> of dates.
> 
> Note: complete is not really complete. Syndicated materials, materials
> produced by non-editorial departments and some other types of news
> (weather reports, some death notices, ... ) are generally not stored
> into newspaper archives, but this varies by the paper.
> 
> Regards, Barbara
> 
> Stacy Pober wrote:
> >
> > It's time for me to update our consolidated journal availability
> > database, and I find that the ProQuest National Newspaper collection has
> > conflicting coverage dates.  The list contradicts itself, so it's hard
> > to know which coverage information is correct.
> >
> > For example, The Christian Science Monitor is listed as full text for
> > 1/3/95-12/3/96 but a separate entry lists it as full-text from
> > 9/30/88-current.
> >
> > There are similar conflicts for the Atlanta Constitution, the Atlanta
> > Journal, the Atlanta Journal/Atlanta Constitution (combined), Boston
> > Globe, Denver Post, Detroit News, Guardian, Houston Chronicle, Los
> > Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, St. Louis Post, Times-Picayune,
> > and USA TODAY.
> >
> > There's some problem in doing searches and retrieving full-text in the
> > date range that has the 'conflicts'. For example, the list says that the
> > Houston Chronicle has FT from 1/14/95- current and also that it has FT
> > from 1/1/95-12/3/96.  There's a comment in the second entry that states
> >
> > If you do the following search in ProQuest:
> > PDN(<11/01/1996) and clinton and source(houston chronicle)
> >
> > You'll see that only some of the articles are in full-text.  But take a
> > look at the third and the sixth citations on the list:  "Candidates
> > still hunting for votes..."  and "Dole has a lead..."  Both are listed
> > as being citation only.  But if you go into the Search by publication,
> > go to that date for the Houston Chronicle, you will find the full text
> > for the "Dole has a lead" article.  You won't find any entry for the
> > "Candidates still hunting" article.  This isn't a unique glitch, it
> > seems to affect every newspaper that has these conflicting entries.
> >
> > Since most ProQuest users look for newspaper articles by searching
> > rather than browsing by newspaper title, this means that some of the
> > full-text is effectively hidden from them.  Few students are going to
> > try browsing for the full-text in the "for publication" utility if their
> > search result tells them the article is citation-only.
> >
> > I first pointed out this journal list discrepancies to UMI in March
> > 2000, but the list still has duplicate entries that provide conflicting
> > information for most of the major papers, and the search facility still
> > lacks the links to some full-text that IS in there.
> >
> > I've contacted UMI (again), and I'm waiting for a response, but I was
> > hoping that perhaps someone had a current, accurate list from them.
> > (Another reason for posting this is that I figure knowing about the
> > 'hidden full-text' might come in handy to other folks.)
> >
> > --
> > Stacy Pober
> > Information Alchemist
> > Manhattan College Libraries
> > spober at manhattan.edu
> > http://www.manhattan.edu/library/
> 
> --
> .....................................................................
> Barbara G. Shapiro                  "Life is what happens to you while
> mailto:barbara at gate.net               you're busy making other plans."
> http://www.gate.net/~barbara/index.html               -- John Lennon
> .....................................................................
-- 
Stacy Pober
Information Alchemist
Manhattan College Libraries
spober at manhattan.edu
http://www.manhattan.edu/library/