Silver Platter, EBSCO, ProQuest front ends

[Stacy Pober]

We currently get Medline, PsycInfo, ERIC, and some other databases through
Silver Platter.  I'm trying to evaluate whether we would be better off 
getting some or all of these through another one of the vendors, such as 
EBSCOhost or ProQuest (we already get general databases both of these vendors.) 

For those of you who have made this switch, or have just used all three 
front ends to get at some of the non-full-text databases such as Medline, 
what have you found to be the reaction of your users to making the switch?

I find the ProQuest interface to be the most user-friendly of the three, but
EBSCOhost is not all that far behind. Are there some major differences you've
seen or significant user preferences on the part of your students and faculty?

The students will most likely use whatever front-end we provide, but the 
faculty may be less flexible about this.  The advantage of being able to find
full-text directly when searching Medline or PsycInfo in one of the other
sources should make the switch easier for them to adjust to.  (Or that's 
what I hope, anyway.)

Stacy Pober
Information Alchemist
Manhattan College Library
http://www.manhattan.edu/library/
stacy.pober at manhattan.edu



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