EBSCO's Garden of Eden

By Cheryl LaGuardia -- Library Journal, 11/15/2005

DO YOU (PRINT) YAHOO? Yahoo recently unveiled its own online archive of printed sources, called Open Content Alliance. It differs from Google Print in that there are no plans to scan any copyrighted work without explicit permission. And so the competition continues....

PARLEZ-VOUS ARTFL? If you're not yet conversant with ARTFL (American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language), you should check it out. Some content is free, such as Pamphlets and Periodicals of the French Revolution of 1848, while the wealth of material is available via subscription. What's truly spectacular is the system's use of the highly sophisticated PhiloLogic software.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “For all software we use at ARTFL, we prefer Free/Open Source packages. If we can't see the code, change it, and share changes with others, the usefulness of otherwise nifty pieces of software seems limited. When we released PhiloLogic, we wanted to use a license that would balance the widest possible distribution while recognizing the University of Chicago's contributions and interests.... By requiring users to offer a link to the source code, including all local modifications, the university's contributions are recognized and users continue to support community development.... In the interest of furthering learning and research, the most academically ethical thing to do is share, and we ask others to share alike.”—ARTFL Development Team

EBSCO; www.epnet.com

Garden Literature Index (GLI) indexes and abstracts over 300 journals on gardening, horticulture, landscape design, botany, ecology, plant conservation, garden management, and horticultural therapy, with a special emphasis on environmentally sustainable gardening practices. Its target audience ranges from gardening enthusiasts to horticulture students to professional landscape designers. Most titles are in English and include, among many others, Agroforestry Systems, American Horticulturist, Better Homes & Gardens, Biodiversity & Conservation, Carolina Gardener, Community Gardener, Ecological Landscaper, Gardener for the Prairies, Journal of Environmental Horticulture, Journal of the Bromeliad Society, Martha Stewart Living, PlantAmnesty, Southern California Gardener, and Wildflower: Journal of the National Wildflower Research Center.

HOW DOES IT WORK? GLI uses the well-designed and effective EBSCOhost interface, with its Basic Search (a straightforward Find box), along with the Advanced Search and its power to limit results to Full Text, by dates, authors, and certain publications, with Expanders to search for related words within the full text and Boolean operators. I like this interface, but, more important, the students and other researchers I work with find it easy to use across subjects and are enthusiastic about it.

CAN YOU AND YOUR PATRONS USE IT? Good gads, yes! The question should really be: Can they stop using it? My first Basic search, for “hydrangeas and blue,” found 20 articles, the first of which was “Top 10 Gardening Tips,” from People, Places & Plants: New England & NY, Early Summer 2005, Issue 50, whose abstract notes it includes the “suggestion on how to turn pink hydrangeas to blue.” Bingo! A perusal of the entire list of abstracts revealed that changing the pH of the soil achieves the blue color. My next search, for “Japanese beetles and roses,” found three articles, from Plants and Garden News, Flower and Garden, and Horticulture, and all three discussed ways of dealing with these garden pests. A search for “drought resistant shrubs” found six results in publications ranging from Fine Gardening and Brooklyn Botanic Garden Handbook to American Horticulturist, American Nurseryman, and Sunset (this one listed 100 such plants, a real find).

My search for “arbor design” found 77 articles that ranged all over the gardening continuum, from “Smart Trellis Solution” (in GC P&S: Garden Center Products & Supplies) to “Ecological theory to enhance infectious disease control and public health policy” (in Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment).

It was the “stump removal” search that won me over completely. Not only did I get a citation to an “Ask Martha” solution from Martha Stewart Living, but I was offered a variety of solutions, including recommendations for specific stump cutters and grinders as well as chemical approaches.

JUST HOW GOOD IS IT? It's 9.9. The only enhancement I can think of would be having full text of the more esoteric titles.

WHAT'S THE COST? The annual subscription for unlimited access for a single site is reasonable. Depending upon the number of participating sites, FTE, and population served, it ranges from $1000 to $2500.

THE BOTTOM LINE This is the only game in e-town to find popular, practical, scholarly, and R&D literature on gardening and horticulture in one place. How pleasant and convenient that it's a very well-done and unique product. Highly recommended for all public, academic, and special libraries.