LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Thanks to everyone who responded to my post. Here's the hit:
Holly
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We have:
World Book (Information Finder)
SIRS Researcher
U-X-L Biographies
(Wilson's Current Biography looked good too)
U-X-L Jr. Worldmark (coming)
EBSCO (cancelling, our state has contracted state-wide SuperTom
access via the web, we love it!)
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We have SIRS, SIRS Government Reporter, Wilson Readers' Guide Abstracts
full text mega ed., DISCovering Authors, Wilson Book Review Digest,
Wilson Current Biography, Newsbank Newsfile, Grangers' Index to Poetry,
UXL Biographies networked on a tower to 12 stations. We are currently
looking for a CD-ROM atlas for world and usa (our current ones are DOS
on our hard disk).
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We have six drives, only five of which function right now:
Infotrac SuperTOM fulltext -- both the current and backfile -- uses 3
drives. The backfile is not getting used because students have to back out
of the current file and redo their search. Only one or two actually do it.
So I think I'll drop it for next year.
The other two bays run DISCovering Authors (the original), which is used
quite a bit by our English classes and the 1994 Grolier is also used a lot.
I might update it next year.
We switched this year from MAS and Newsbank last year. I haven't been
disappointed. We are also more in sync with the public library by using
Infotrac.
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We have Grolier's Electronic, Facts on File (which the students like),
McGraw Hill Science & Technology Reference, InfoTrac, a US almanac, a
world almanac, the World's Best Poetry, SIRS, and Microsoft Bookshelf.
They are all widely used---probably McGraw Hill less than the others.
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We also have EMAS and SIRS. In addition, I have Ethnic Newswatch (a
multi-cultural full-text newspaper database), Discovering Multicultural
America by Gale, Encyclopedia Americana 1996, and Magills Survey of Science
by Ebsco.
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You're right about too much overlap between MAS and InfoTrac: I feel MAS is
a superior product as far as coverage and search strategies go.
We use the McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology on CD: it's
much cheaper than the hard copy, and, because it's on a computer, the
students are much more likely to search on it.
We also have Britannica on CD, and that, too, is used much more than the
hard copy.
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We have very much what you do--MAS full-text, SIRS Researcher and
Renaissance, Newsbank (Chicago Tribune), First-Hand History, McGraw-Hill
Science Encyclopedia, EnCarta 96, plan to add Facts on File, are looking for
good biology disks (the ones we're previewing are glitz and glitter but not
enough information and too hard to navigate), and HealthSource from EBSCO.
We have Dialog on one machine, internet on four, and various CD-ROM
applications that the kids have to get the disks from the circulation desk to
use. EnCarta is the newest of our networked CD-ROMs and it's great--the
accelerated algebra freshmen are researching all sorts of topics with it and
the biology teacher likes it better than the biology disks.
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Facts on file makes two products on CD Rom. The Facts on File News
Digest would NOT replace Newsbank. We will no longer subscribe to it next
year.
The other Facts On File product is more like newsbank but I have not tried
it and cannot advise. Some places will send you a sample. I received an
ad from Facts on File showing a sample page from each CD rom product. Did
you receive that too?
Something else that's new is Issues and Controversies on file. This
product replaces Current News on File which has been discontinued. We
receive this in paper format, and students seem to be finding more useful
info in it than Current News on File or Facts on File.
Another good one but expensive is Exegy. My SS teachers love it.
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Please post. We're just setting up a tower. Being loaded is SIRS,
Newsfile, Proquest Search, and I've
ordered the networkable World Book (they couldn't get Encarta to work).
Next year I may add Science
Source from Newsbank.
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Holly, I would not give up SIRS. I also have Newsbank and wonder how it
compares to the new Facts on File. I was not please with the old
version. Please share any info you get. Thanks.
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We have the following on our tower: SIRS Researcher and
Government Reporter, NewsBank, Discovering Authors, Infotrac SuperTOM,
and Encyclopedia Americana. I don't think Facts on File would be a good
replacement for NewsBank because it is really just a digest of news
events--not complete articles like those found in NewsBank. We are
considering the purchase of McGraw-Hill's Science Encyclopedia. Hope
this helps.
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We run InfoTrac (3 drives), DISCovering Authors, World Book (2 drives,
although the networded version will not be distributed until May),
Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance(I don't think that is the
complete title). I do not have any experience with Facts on File.
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We have an old network: DOS based, Novell & ICLASS and a CBIS
tower--so old that the drives are single speed. But we are running on older
version of Grolier, a new Encyclopedia Americana 1996, Readers Guide
Abstracts Full text Mini Edition, Monarch Notes, Chronicle Occupational
Briefs, on old version of Microsoft Bookshelf, and SIRS Researcher. All
these are the DOS versions of the products and work quite well on our
network. I'd really like to upgrade our network to Windows and have big
file servers and fast CD-ROM drives--but the money just isn't there.
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Right now I have pretty much the same group of CDs you have. However, I con't
know how FActs on File can be a substitute for Newsbank - the breadth of
coverage is just not in Facts on File, which really is just a digest. I know
that Newsbank is very expensive. I've actually dipped into my sacred library
book account to help pay for it, but I feel strongly that our students do need
a newspaper tool at their disposal. A couple of years ago I previewed a CD
product that was for newspapers that was not as expensive as Newsbank, and I
almost subscribed to it, because it wasn't bad. In the end I decided to go
with the high-priced spread and got Newsbank. I wish I could think of the
name of that program. You might want to consider it as a lower priced
alternative to Newsbank.
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