ALA Product Report: Less Was More in Denver

"What a waste of money to be here," said one reference publisher after I asked him if he thought the ALA in Denver was underattended. Indeed, all you had to do was head in the direction of the ladies' room and see that there were no long lines outside it to know that something was off. But when it came to the actual products, something was very much on. For attendees, fewer people on the floor translated into more conversation both for vendors and librarians. In my case, that meant more insight into what is going on. Of course, it's not so easy to impress reference librarians. Comments like this response to an LJ article about budgeting speak volumes about what's on their minds these days: "If you're one of those publishers who repackages the same stuff and hawks it to the unsuspecting, you suck. And you ain't foolin' me."

Indeed, in recent years we have seen a maddening proliferation of e-products, but if there was one thing to take away from Denver, it was that the database madness seems to have at least subsided. Instead, I saw more clarity in approach and simplicity in offerings. Publishers seem to be on a mission to reinvent what they already have instead of introducing another product that looks like something you've seen before. Here's what stood out:

GENEALOGY ON THE WEB IS EXPLODING We've all seen TV ads for Ancestry.com—and there is something to be said for seeing a high-profile ad for a database—but many of us have yet to discover what else is flourishing in the category, including products like NewsBank's America's Geneaology Bank (with access to millions of records dating back to the 1600s), Footnote.com (a historical document and genealogy site with access to 50 million primary documents), and, if you can't afford a subscription, FamilySearch.com. It's free and claims to be the largest collection of genealogy resources available, with data from over 100 countries. In an era of uncontrollable greed in the private sector, it's refreshing to hear that there are businesses out there relying on funding from churches and individuals (in case you were wondering).

WHEN PUBLISHERS MERGE, life goes on Or does it?

With all the recent mergers among reference publishers, including Sage's purchase of CQ Press and EBSCO's purchase of Salem, many have been left wondering what less competition means for libraries. For now, everyone claims it's business as usual. In the case of ABC-CLIO's purchase of Greenwood, who exhibited in a separate booth one last time in Denver, all Greenwood imprints (including Libraries Unlimited and Praeger) will be retained. At the same time, a brand new platform that will house both publishers' products is in the works (and will be unveiled at summer ALA). For the moment at least, the Greenwood folks (many of whom continue to work from home) can rejoice in the recent news that their Pop Culture Universe database won the prestigious Dartmouth Medal.

IMPROVEMENTS DON'T GO UNNOTICED While we all hate to have to relearn how to use a familiar product, we always appreciate when a good product is made better. A good example of this is Wilson's recent addition of the ReadSpeak feature to its full-text databases. The tool converts the databases' HTML full-text articles into audio files for immediate listening or downloading. Wilson also unveiled a stellar new addition to its Arts Suite: Cinema Image Gallery (see review, p. 102). Emerald, too, is expanding its horizons by acquiring parts of Elsevier's Social Sciences series and books program. Hitherto known for publishing peer-reviewed journals, Emerald is now positioning itself as a premier publisher of ebooks covering management research.

FINDING YOUR NICHE IS KEY With so many competing e-products, focusing on the less-covered is a good way to get attention. Take, for example, InfoUSA's ReferenceUSA database. At first glance, it looks like another online directory of U.S. and global businesses. But what makes it stand out is its unique focus on the mom-and-pop businesses, which make up 65 percent of the U.S. business sector.

LANGUAGES WILL BE LEARNED ONLINE And what's more, you'll never associate the word mango with fruit alone after you've taken Mango Languages for a test drive. This web-based language learning program (which patrons access for free through their library's site and use in the privacy of their homes) is intuitively designed and equipped with every tool imaginable, including audio narration. When a 2.0 version is rolled out this year, it will incorporate 28 languages. Not impressed? Then try downloading (for $4.99) Innovative Language Learning's new iPod-, iPhone-, and iTouch-friendly language learning application sold exclusively on iTunes.

REFERENCE LIBRARIANS ARE HERE TO STAY You knew that already, but now you have a few more reasons to rub it in everyone's face. First, texting a librarian is no longer a myth thanks to TextaLibrarian.com, which is easy to implement and actually keeps patron phone numbers private. Second, your old reference sets don't need to collect dust if you implement Paratext's Reference Universe, which will index your entire reference collection for you (don't worry, they have it down to a science), so you will actually be able to use what you own. And third, you can now quantify your library's reference service through Altarama's RefTracker, which lets you (and, alas, your manager) see how reference is used.