E-Views and Reviews: Book Searching Made Easy

Sure, everyone knows exactly what virtual reference is, don't they? Not necessarily. I hear the term applied to 24/7 chat, email reference, and real-time webinars. Is what constitutes virtual reference morphing, and, if so, how can we shape its new form? Let me know how new online resources and utilities are transitioning reference and research support.

ARTstor ReDUX I've received considerable feedback to my review of ARTstor (LJ 9/15/04, p. 24ff.) and want more, especially from those of you in visual resources libraries. Everyone agrees the content is marvelous, but some register major concerns over its usability. Contact me and let me know whether you can be quoted, either in the column or to the vendor.

Quote of the Week: "I think 'reference' as a standalone category is becoming obsolete in the electronic arena…. The lines between types of research tools break down when they move online…. But this breakdown creates a raw power, and most of us need it refined in order to unlock its real value. You can't just throw journal articles, chapter books, primary sources, and other research tools together…you need to create entrance points, doors, and various types of bridges. Because reference materials offer so many access points to a subject, they are the natural building blocks of such architecture."—Casper Grathwohl, VP & Publisher, Reference and Online, Oxford University Press, New York

This file of over 6000 books is in four collections (ITPro, BusinessPro, FinancePro, and OfficeEssentials) and includes titles from McGraw-Hill/Osborne, John Wiley & Sons, Cambridge University Press, Sybex, Microsoft Press, Harvard Business School Press, Oxford University Press, Nolo, MIT Press, IBM Redbooks, and Wrox Press. Subjects cover business and culture, certification and compliance, databases, desktop and office applications, enterprise computing, hardware, networks and protocols, operating systems, programming languages, security, telecommunications, web programming, and much more. Content is cover to cover, including full text, tables, sidebars, figures, drawings, and formulas. The file is updated monthly; many titles appear here before they are in print. The system conforms to industry standards for OpenURL environments and federated searching.

How Does It Work? The home screen offers plenty of options for accessing the material. A single search box invites searching for words, phrases, title words, author's name, publisher, or ISBN. Users can search within one of the collections, within all books, or in subsections. They can also browse within the topics in a collection, examine the list of most recently added titles, or check the top books accessed over the past week.

Can You and Your Patrons Use It? I first searched in all the collections for the phrase "for dummies" and located 83 of the John Wiley titles. The results list showed a thumbnail of the book cover, the title and imprint, a brief but sufficient abstract, the ISBN, and a link to the Table of Contents. Nice.

A search for "cold fusion" found 53 results, with the top section hits (for search term relevancy) listed. Very nice. These led directly to the chapters within the book most closely aligned with my search topic. But when I narrowed the search ("cold fusion and security") my result list grew to 118 hits. For curiosity's sake, I tried "cold fusion security" and got 83 results. Odd. In all three cases, the results looked appropriate—the relevancy section hits were accurate. Why did my result list grow as I added terms? There must be something unusual in the search algorithm.

A search for "organizational development" produced 679 hits. The addition of "and conceptual framework" produced 20 results. This made sense, and the results were great. I discovered that not only do the section hits highlight the significant chapters within the books, they also highlight and list subsections of chapters, further focusing your search results: an excellent timesaving tool for full-text book research.

A search for "first-time home buyers" brought 294 hits, with chapters written for both the buyers themselves and real estate agents. I followed what I thought was a rare international reference to "Investing in China," which led me to search "Japanese business." The 683 results covered trends, theories, best practices, etc.—clearly there is plenty of internationally themed material here.

How Good Is It? A solid 9.5. Content, access, and information display are all superb. It would rate a ten but for that weird cold fusion search. The publishers are first rate, and it's one of the few digital book collections that is designed for easy searching yet also supports power users.

What's the Cost? Annual subscription is $399 per collection per seat. There are volume discounts available based on collections and number of users per collection.

The Bottom Line: Even if you own Safari Books, consider adding Books24x7; there are more titles and the interface and navigation system are better. Highly recommended for academic, public, and special libraries as well as personal subscriptions.