Index-wise, is less more?

[s_lochhead@MENTOR.UNH.EDU]

OK, Troops.  Here's a question to which I hope some of you will respond
(to me directly, please - I'll post a tally.)

I am pondering a switch from Magazine Article Summaries (Full Text
Select, +/- 400 titles of indexing and abstracting, of which 60 are full
text, $1799 for a quarterly subscription) to Proquest Resource One (Select
Full Text, 60 titles of indexing and abstracting, of which 50 are full
text, $1200 for a 12-month subscription.)

I have been comparing my holdings with the titles indexed, of course, and
contemplating other things (like the fact that my opac will have an
interface for the Proquest product in a year or so, enabling me to license
the db and load it on a hard drive for searches right through the catalog
interface.)  And I have to say that the MAS subject headings make me
crazy.  Still, we have been pretty darn happy with it, overall, making
this the first real contender.  (This paragraph could go on forever -
there are a lot of factors to tot up on either side.)


Right now I am wondering if you think students would rather have smaller
hit lists, of which virtually everything is available online, or longer
hit lists of which a much smaller percentage is available online.

From your experiences, is less really more?

(Yes, I am also asking my own students!)


Looking forward to your unvarnished opinions,

Shelley



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