E-Views and Reviews: Searching Made Easy

All the News That's Fit To Digitize If you haven't yet taken a look at NewspaperDirect PressDisplay Version 3.0, distributed to library markets by ProQuest, you'll want to do so without further delay. This current events resource has been around for a few years and now allows full-color, full-page image access to over 340 papers from over 60 countries in 35 languages. At last! I can read the New York Daily News cover to cover without getting newsprint all over myself!

The Encyclopedia-Off, Round 4 This time I decided to look into the business about Pluto, until recently the ninth planet in our solar system. The Britannica article makes no mention of the phrase dwarf planet, the title by which Pluto was reclassified by the International Astronomical Union. Over at Wikipedia, there's a good outline describing Pluto's discovery, physical characteristics, moons, exploration, and a discussion of the planetary status controversy. The current score is Britannica 0, Wikipedia 4.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “We're at last fulfilling our vision of bringing text, image, video, audio, and the greater web of publishing together. Within a few months, using Music Online, our users can do a single search for a Mozart opera, hear the music, follow along with the score, read about Mozart and the opera, see images of his times, link to related web sites, and watch a video of the opera in performance. This is how students and researchers want to experience knowledge, and we're excited about building these capabilities across all disciplines.”—Eileen Lawrence, VP, Sales & Marketing, Alexander Street Press

Marquis Who's Who
www.marquiswhoswho.com

Marquis Who's Who on the Web is a collection of over 1.3 million biographies that have appeared in 21 Marquis print titles since 1985, including, among others, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who in Entertainment, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare, and Who's Who in Religion.

The biographies contain birth and death data, educational achievements, and personal and professional histories for individuals from “all fields of endeavor,” including government, business, science and technology, the arts, entertainment, and sports. The file is updated daily and includes access to Who's Who in American History (110,000 biographies from 1607 to 1985) and Who's Who in American Art (14,000 prominent American artists), both searchable as separate files.

How Does It Work? What a welcome relief to see such a cleanly designed opening screen. It offers a simple search of the entire database by last name and first name, using a wildcard search (or not, just by clicking the option box on or off). It also allows you to do an Advanced Search using such criteria as City of Mailing Address, Zip Code, Country, Occupation, Gender, Birth Year, Birth Place, College/University Keyword, Hobbies and Special Interests, Political Affiliation, Religion, and more.

The default for searching covers the entire database, including the two historical files, Who's Who in American History and Who's Who in American Art, which makes very good sense. However, you have the option of searching just among the living. See what I mean about welcome relief?

Can You and Your Patrons Use It?

I spent the first two hours shamelessly doing fun, information-gathering searches on ancestors, friends, “not-friends,” the famous, and the not-so-famous. I easily found most of the folks I searched for, including Louisa May Alcott, Susan Brownell Anthony, George Washington Carver, César Chávez, Jane Colden, Frederick Douglass, Benjamin Franklin, Althea Gibson, Reza Shah, Martina Navratilova, Alice Walker, Edmund White, and Yoshiko Yoshimura. Regrettably, I didn't find biographies for Sojourner Truth, Ira Hayes, Billy Mills, or Queen Latifah (respect to Ice-T, but if he's there, the Queen ought to be, too).

Next, I tried a series of searches employing the 15 different search limiters. I looked for Asian American congresswomen, ambassadors to Brazil, Latvian librarians, and Democratic female executives who are Harvard graduates and got logical hits for all of them. Complex, multilevel searching is very powerful but also very easy.

How Good Is It? Marquis Who's Who on the Web has been designed, implemented, and improved over time and iterations to the point where it is near perfect. I shave a fraction of a point off because of the few omissions and another because my log-in timed out on me several times. That gives the file a very strong 9.9.

What's the Cost? The regular price for an annual subscription is $1,595, with discounted rates to academic and public libraries of $1,195 for one concurrent user's unlimited searching with remote access.

The Bottom Line Marquis Who's Who on the Web continues the Marquis tradition of being an absolutely essential research tool. Recommended with gusto for all libraries.