EBSCO's New Releases Will Take on American Studies, Multilingual Health, Hobbies & Crafts
Josh Hadro -- Library Journal, 6/24/2008 1:30:00 PM
- Two new historical digital archives for 2009 will draw content from American Antiquarian Society (AAS) and American Theological Library Association (ATLA)
- Multilingual Health Database to be available in 17 languages
- Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center hits dozens of niches for leisure activities
While the big news out of EBSCO these days is its new interface—set to launch mid-July and already available for users to check out—the company also released several new products, which should generate interest among academic and public librarians attending the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference later this week in Anaheim. The company’s new American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals collection, made available through a unique agreement with the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), will provide access to a treasure trove of U.S. serials, while the Multilingual Health Databases, designed for public libraries, will offer medical information in up to 17 languages.
The Historical Periodicals collection is the result of EBSCO’s new partnership with the AAS, holders of one of the major collections of American historical periodicals, never before digitized. The AAS material comes from the personal library of American Revolutionary publisher Isaiah Thomas and represents “nearly all the eighteenth-century American and Canadian periodicals” according to the society. “Existing indexes of historical periodicals are often somewhat ‘sketchy’ and usually only cover the ‘mainstream’ periodical titles,” said AAS president Ellen Dunlap, but “[EBSCO’s] full-text digitization will reveal vast storehouses of information which have been completely hidden from researchers in the past, and that’s very exciting.”
The database will contain more than 6500 periodicals published between 1693 and 1876. The journals will be released in five series, starting in 2009 with Series 1:1693-1820. Libraries will have the option of either purchasing ownership of the digital archives or licensing the content instead. To create an even bigger bang for users, institutions that also subscribe to the America: History and Life index, acquired by EBSCO last year, will find content seamlessly cross-linked between the two collections.
Health information in Farsi
Public librarians struggle to provide quality health information to linguistically diverse communities. According a recent ALA report, “Serving Non-English Speakers in U.S. Public Libraries,” upwards of 21 million U.S. residents have "limited or no ability to speak English." EBSCO’s new Multilingual Health Databases attempts to address this need directly by offering evidence-based yet easily comprehensible health information in 17 languages. The product is geared directly toward larger urban public libraries and smaller libraries serving significant immigrant populations, as well as special libraries affiliated with hospitals and other healthcare providers serving linguistically diverse populations. Customers can choose as many of the languages as they want, which range from Arabic to Russian, or opt for all 17.
The health information mirrored across the 17 language databases is based on content in the existing Consumer Health Complete database and has been translated by medically trained personnel. Full-text searching will be available in each language, and the articles themselves are written at a fifth-grade reading level to ensure that the content is accessible to those with limited reading proficiency. The Multilingual Health Databases are expected to be released in December 2008.
More for theologians and knitters
EBSCO is also announcing two other products. Resulting from a partnership with the American Theological Library Association (ATLA), the company will digitize two monograph collections (29,000 titles) and a serials collection (1200 titles). The monograph content covers the period from the early 19th century to the early 20th century, with the serials reaching back to the early 19th century, periods described by the company as a “time of great doctrinal, social, and organizational turmoil and upheaval in American religion.” The 19th century monograph collection will see its first release in 2009, followed by the 20th century monograph and the serials collections.
Finally, with its Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center, EBSCO is covering a niche area previously untouched by database products. Or, more exactly, dozens of niche areas, given the variety of topics covered, which range from amateur astronomy to wedding crafts. Citing consumer research, EBSCO representatives claim that the subject of hobbies and crafts is the single most-requested topic missing from current aggregate database offerings. The Reference Center is expected in Fall 2008, and will contain 152 craft and hobby magazines, 311 books, 146 videos, and 144 hobby reports generated by experts hired by EBSCO.
These products are indicative of EBSCO’s move into content creation—going beyond acquisition and aggregation—a trend in evidence since the release of the ground-breaking LGBT Life several years back. The company credits its use of librarian advisors in helping to shape its news products.
