E-Views and Reviews: EBSCO Gets Bookish, Goes Green

By Cheryl LaGuardia -- Library Journal, 7/15/2004

I want to hear about the free research products you use in conjunction with the commercial files. Have you used RedLightGreen (from Research Libraries Group, www.redlightgreen.com) or The Infography (from Fields of Knowledge, www.infography.com), or another web-based finding tool? Are you teaching these freebies to your users? Email me, and I'll summarize your answers in an upcoming column.

More on Oral History: If our review of Alexander Street's Oral History Online (LJ 6/1/04, p. 39ff.) interested you, check out the free Oral History Directory (www.oralhistorydirectory.com). This permanent resource details major oral history collections in English from around the world. It includes over 1900 collections from nearly 600 repositories and is updated quarterly. Also included is an Oral History Top 100, the most popular collections based on the number of times they're accessed.

Quote of the Week: "Quality results are more important than a large number of results. The availability and sophistication of linking technologies will continue to accelerate, exposing the strengths and weaknesses of the indexes underlying most databases. High-quality indexing will become more critical as databases increasingly serve as pointers to full text residing elsewhere…. The opportunity to search rare content via the web is a powerful benefit. We see this as the next important wave in database publishing, and we're working with librarians and faculty members to identify needs and opportunities." —Ron Klausner, President, ProQuest Information & Learning

BookSource: Nonfiction contains abstracts and full text for over 2000 popular nonfiction books. Content consists primarily of biographies of contemporary and historical figures, multicultural material, and popular interest titles. Subjects include adventure, careers, health, literature, social studies, sports, science, and technology. Reading levels (according to the Lexile Framework) are specified for all information; the target audience is researchers in public and school libraries. Many complete series are included from Capstone Press, Chelsea House, Compass Point, Great Neck Publishing, Lerner Publishing Group, Mason Crest Publishers, Millbrook Press, Morgan Reynolds, Oxford University Press, and Rourke Publishing, LLC. A complete title list is available on the web site. The database is updated monthly.

EBSCO also has included standard/benchmark books and book chapters for six subjects to meet the demand for original source information and curricular support. There are over 170 of these benchmarks identified in the database under the subjects Language Arts, Civics, Earth and Space Sciences, Physical Sciences, U.S. History, and World History.

How Does It Work? The file offers Basic and Advanced Searching, as well as Browsing by Subject or by Book. You can also select categories in which to search for images: photos (of people, nature, places, historical events), maps, and flags. The search interface language can be adjusted from English to French, German, Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese. Tables of Contents for entire books included from within entries can be viewed in search results.

Can You and Your Patrons Use It? The first click should be on Database Help. Here are scope notes, searching tips, definitions of fields, and information on using limiters and advanced searches. This wealth of inside info would take hours (if not longer) to intuit, but you can scan in minutes and quickly become a power searcher.

I searched for "amelia earhart" and as prompted easily limited results to full text and at the Lexile reading level of 1030-1300+ (grades 9–12). This produced 11 results, most from Cheryl Harness's Remember the Ladies: 100 Great American Women (HarperCollins, 2001) and Nancy Shore's Amelia Earhart (Sagebrush, 1999). An image search of Natural Science Photos for "cactus" brought up many images of cacti, as well as several stills of Grace Kelly, W.C. Fields, and Gloria Swanson posing among cacti (the entries don't reveal why these photos came up, but the information must be enhanced with descriptions).

How Good Is It? In functionality, BookSource: Nonfiction is a clear ten: it is so easy to use, elementary school kids will find pertinent results. For content it's an eight, not because of the quality—which is good—but because of the quantity. As EBSCO licenses more books (which it is doing) this number will rise. Overall, it's a strong nine.

What's the Cost? The price ranges from $395 (elementary schools) to $595 (middle schools) to $795 (high schools). Pricing for public libraries is $1,495 for main library and $750 per branch.

The Bottom Line: Ease of use and good-quality information make this a product wanted by public and school libraries, as well as community colleges. Recommended for now; increased content will make the recommendation even stronger.

Formerly known as Environmental Knowledgebase OnLine, this file provides indexing and abstracts for more than 1000 international journals in agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, environmental law, geography, marine and freshwater resources, public policy, social impacts, and urban planning. It includes a thesaurus and covers 1973 to the present. EBSCO Premier Package customers have access to the full text of 245 journals indexed in Environmental Issues and Policy Index at no extra cost.

How Does It Work? Basic searching and Advanced searching are available here as in BookSource: Nonfiction, and there are Browsing features for Publications, Thesaurus, and Indexes. Basic search limits results to Peer Reviewed only, a specific publication, or a date range. It also expands a search into the full text of articles, or includes all search terms by default. In addition to offering multiple entry boxes, Advanced searching lets you specify types of documents.

In ten seconds I completed a Basic search that found 22 articles on "spotted owls" in peer-reviewed journals from 2000 to 2004. Advanced search for "acid rain" and "lichens" located 16 articles in journals ranging from Northeastern Naturalist and Environmental Pollution to The New Phytologist (check out the journal list at the web site—it's impressive).

My Browse in the Thesaurus found entries for "environmental impact analysis" and "environmental impact analysis—law & legislation," as well as the cross reference "environmental impact assessment Use environmental impact analysis." The Index Browse let me scan quickly through Author lists, Document Types, Geographic and Thesaurus terms, Publication Names, and more. I encountered a problem in the alphabetical Browse list for Publications, though: when I entered "trends in ecology & evolution," I got the message, "No results were found for your browse query. Please try again." I spelled out "and" and tried again. No luck. I tried "trends." Nothing. But when I did these Browses for "relevancy ranked" results, all three of them worked. Hope EBSCO checks this out.

Can You and Your Patrons Use It? The file will be used quickly and easily by professional and scholarly researchers and the librarians who work with them.

How Good Is It? The combination of content, access, coverage, and the Thesaurus merits a 10.

What's the Cost? For a four-year academic library, prices are $1900 for up to 2,499 FTE; $2900 for 2500 to 9,999 FTE; and $3900 for over 10,000 FTE.

The Bottom Line: Environmental Issues and Policy Index is highly recommended for academic, special, and research libraries serving a broad range of users. It will be valuable for interdisciplinary research as well as study on environment and policy.