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Dear Colleagues, After reading the responses to my question concerning CD-ROM vs WEB access for electronic databases like SIRS and Wilson Biographies, I am afraid that I am still undecided. My own thoughts/concerns are: 1)It is very inconvenient to reinstall the new SIRS CD three times/yr on each computer that accesses it. (Does everyone do this?); 2)When the Internet goes down, there goes the program; 3)Only the computers hooked up to the Internet would be able to access the database; 4) With SIRS Researcher, which are rather long articles, will it be as easy to print only certain lines from the WEB article (won't you have to highlight the lines and then save them to a word pro before printing?); 5)How are the graphics and printing of them on the WEB? Does anyone out there know if you can try out the SIRS databases on the WEB for free? I just read that you can try the Wilson databases (CD or Web) for free. Here are the responses I received: Funny you should post this message, as it has just been tested and proven at our HS this past year. Right now, the Internet does not offer the best access for research for students as THE SOLE BACKUP or primary source because it is too slow. We tried it both ways, since there was much reluctance in our school system to convert from CD access (on a network- LAN) to the Internet (high speed line - networked - WAN). The Internet poses the following disadvantages: 1. it is often slow 2. students lack patience 3. there are more steps to accessing information via the Internet than on a CD in-house, thus slowing down the process further 4. when accessing a database on the Internet, first a login is needed, then information located must be downloaded (this slows the process down accessing information) 5. there is a time lag between one screen loading and another 6. when the server is down at a particular site (they say this won't happen, but it does, frequently) what are your students to do? 7. when there is heavy use of a particular site, the access is slowed considerably If I had the choice, which I do now, I will stick with my RELIABLE CD access. We also have Wilson Biographies, SIRS, and some of the other programs you've suggested along with ProQuest Research One (magazine, newspaper database). Joann W. Tillberg Not only faster, but more consistently. Carl Seale, Librarian We switched from SIRS Researcher and Discoverer on CD ROM to Web access and love it! I can now instruct students on how to use these resources in a lab setting vs. on a screen with a video projector. It also helps us to direct our student research to Web appropriate sources vs. surfing. Deb Larson Just a thought on the CD vs Web access. A year ago our high school got a new CD tower, but the SIRS databases (Researcher, Govt Reporter and Renaissance) that we had never worked right for very long at a time. Finally in April the tower was sent back to the manufacturer, who returned it without fixing it, and then lost it when we returned it the second time. The short of it is that we had very little use of any of our CD's for this entire year. I just learned at ALA that SIRS costs the same whether on CD or Web - I would definitely go with the Web access after our experience. Haven't used CB unfortunately. Nancy Badertscher I was considering the pros and cons of CD vs. internet for magazines. One day I was helping a student print an article off Proquest Direct on the web. Later that day I picked up the latest issue of Time. The article she had accessed was from this issue! No way would she have had CD access to it - or even an index that would have included it. Currency, currency, currency!!! Jill Brown Lois Tabis, Librarian Sharpsville HS, Sharpsville, PA tabis@infonline.net =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-= To quit LM_NET (or set NOMAIL or DIGEST), Send an email message to listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST * NOTE: Please allow time for confirmation from Listserv. For LM_NET Help & Archives see: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=