E-Reference Ratings: Education/Vocation

Associates Program Source Plus (APSP). EBSCO. www.ebscohost.com 

Also known as Vocational Studies Complete, APSP is tailored toward students enrolled in two-year associates or technical programs. These programs are clearly supported by the scope of the content: cosmetology, interior design, and travel and tourism, among others. Through the sleek yet powerful EBSCO 2.0 platform, users have access to more than 200 full-text books and 1700 full-text journals, including news sources, market research reports, and reports from national institutions. Though some publications provide indexing and abstracting back to the 1960s, the majority of the titles go back to the early 1980s through the 2000s. Pricing is a bit steep; libraries will want to weigh the pros and cons of subscribing to this specialized database versus a more generalized product like Wilson's Education Full Text (below) or ProQuest's Education Journals (below).

Career Library. EBSCO. www.ebscohost.com

Hidden behind a dated interface (not EBSCO's 2.0 platform) and overshadowed by many underdeveloped features is this generic resource. A modified version of a tabbed interface gives one the impression of a frames-based web site—never a positive experience. The absence of a global search box is frustrating and forces one to hunt and peck through the information. Actual named search features (like College Search) lead users to browse through lists of names or titles rather than to execute a query. Career Library is not a lost cause, however; the unique Cool Jobs section showcases information about pursuing newly created, popular, and out-of-the-ordinary careers like gumologist, crime scene cleaner, and body part model. Still, this is such a miniscule silver lining that libraries would fare better with a product like Ferguson's (below).

Education: A SAGE Full-Text Collection. SAGE. www.sagefulltext.com

Size doesn't seem to matter when it comes to this database, which indexes abstracts and provides full-text access to 36 peer-reviewed journals published from 1917 to the present day and covering everything from multilingual and international education to research methods and evaluation. When compared with Wilson's, Gale's, EBSCO's, and ProQuest's products in the category, SAGE's content is about 72 percent unique. Some examples of singular titles include Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, Journal of Transformative Education, and Urban Education. Another plus is the SAGE Online Journals interface, which will house this and all other SAGE full-text collections (see Sociology, below) after December 31, 2009. For those used to CSA's Illumina platform, little will be missed when the switch is made to SAGE's homegrown platform, but much will be gained, e.g., access to built-in social bookmarking through applications like Delicious, Digg, Reddit, and Citeulike.

Education Full Text (EFT). Wilson. www.hwwilson.com

A moderately serious player in the education database family, EFT provides indexing and abstracting to more than 600 journals, of which 50 percent are available in full text and over 400 are peer reviewed. Coverage dates back to 1983 and includes a wide range of subjects, including but not limited to competency-based education, government funding, and teacher evaluation. As with other Wilson databases, the interface may create some unwanted frustration. For libraries whose budgets may not accommodate EFT, an alternative would be ProQuest's Education Journals (below). If budgetary constraints are not a concern but the interface is, the alternative would be Gale's Educator's Reference Complete (below).

Educator's Reference Complete (ERC). Gale Cengage. www.gale.cengage.com

Although not the most comprehensive education resource, this database would fill a substantial gap in the holdings of libraries that use ProQuest's Education Journals (below), ERIC (below), and Wilson's Education Full Text (above). With information dating from 1980 to the present, ERC's more than 7.2 million articles from over 1100 periodicals and 200 reports from the U.S. Department of Education are worth noting. Such unique journal titles as Focus on Learning Problems in Mathematics, International Journal of Social Education, and School Arts are easily accessible through Gale's PowerSearch interface, with quick tabs for intuitive navigation. Both basic and advanced search options are available; however, one frustration is the inflexibility of the limiters. The results list is broken down by source type (e.g., academic journals, books, multimedia), which users can then share, save, or download for future reference. Another downside: the platform's inability to play with OpenURL resolvers.

ERIC: The Educational Resource Information Center. U.S. Dept. of Education. www.eric.ed.gov; www.ebscohost.com

By itself, the content indexed in ERIC via EBSCOhost is no different from the content indexed in its freely available counterpart sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education: 1.3 million records (including articles, books, dissertations, and other education-related documents) with full-text access to 317,000 documents dating back to 1966. However, ERIC via EBSCOhost offers a superior interface with multiple search and information management capabilities and access to EBSCO's image collection. Using this in conjunction with other EBSCO products gives users the added benefit of seamless interoperability. Geared toward teachers, librarians, administrators, policymakers, education researchers, and even parents and the general public, ERIC is also available through other vendors, including ProQuest, OVID, and Wilson. [The ratings are based on the EBSCOhost platform.]

Ferguson's Career Guidance Center (FCGC). Facts On File. factsonfile.infobasepublishing.com

Having already earned accolades from LJ as well as from Choice and Booklist, FCGC looks more like a web site than a database. This may be attributed to an intended audience consisting mainly of high school students and undergraduates. However, adult career changers may find the information contained within the 3300 job profiles insightful. In addition, nearly 70 résumés and 22 cover letters can be modified to suit personal needs. The nearly 300 recently added videos of interviews and information sessions with professionals in a variety of career fields add a personal element to their textual counterparts. Although the design incorporates intuitive searching and browsing features, one frustrating aspect is the lack of hyperlinks to web sites mentioned within the job profile essays and the resource lists. However, it is a small price to pay (literally) for such a practical product.

ProQuest's Career and Technical Education (PCTE). ProQuest. www.proquest.com

About half the size of EBSCO's APSP (above), PCTE abstracts and indexes more than 600 journals, of which 500 are available in full text. Articles date from 1975 to the present and cover topics as diverse as health care and graphic design. Scope is comparable to EBSCO's APSP, which means that traditional Vo-Tech programs such as culinary arts, auto mechanics, photography, and computer sciences are amply represented in the literature. Some journal titles that illustrate this coverage include Computer Technology Review, Agricultural Research, and Nutrition and Food Sciences. Pricing is also on par with EBSCO's APSP, which is surprising given the size difference. Libraries at institutions supporting technical courses will want to consider a more generalized database first or, if price is not an issue, EBSCO's APSP.

ProQuest's Education Journals. ProQuest. www.proquest.com

This is a great stand-alone product for libraries looking to improve their education collection; however, those that can afford to add this product to an already well-rounded education collection should do so because there is little overlap between ProQuest's 790-plus journal titles and those indexed by Wilson's EFT (above) and Gale's ERC (above). Plus, 615 of the 790 are available in full text. That's more than 78 percent. Thanks to ProQuest's OpenURL capabilities, users can easily locate the full text to the remaining 22 percent if their library subscribes to them. With the standard three-box advanced search interface, ProQuest's platform is slowly becoming outdated. Although the searching and browsing capabilities are powerful, users will be looking for 2.0 functionalities like sharing results through Facebook or Delicious and finding supplementary information by way of multimedia.

Vocations, Careers, and Technical Education Collection (VCTEC). Gale Cengage. www.gale.cengage.com

The scant amount of literature available through Gale about VCTEC claims that it has what it takes to assist individuals in selecting a college, choosing a career, and finding a job. However, searchers will find little or no evidence to support this claim. Instead, the 7.1 million articles from 400 journals like American Machinist, Marines Magazine, and Adult Learning seem to fit the profile of a general two-year associates or technical program product like EBSCO's APSP (above) or ProQuest's CTE (above). To confuse things further, the main page opens to a “What's New” section that highlights topics such as global warming, stem cells, and animal rights. A keyword search on “liberal arts college” yielded a wide smattering of articles like “Residence hall architecture and a sense of community,” “Technology for nondummies,” and “Reed College dedicates new chemistry lab.” If this product ever overcomes what appears to be an identity crisis, one suggestion for improvement would be to update the PowerSearch interface to allow users to browse by college and industry.