LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Here are the responses to my question, "Is Dialog Dead?" Thank you to all
who responded!
To me you probably could find some of the same info on the Internet but I
don't think you can find it as efficiently. Dialog is still a lot more
specific to search and you can really narrow down what you are looking for.
At this point in time the Internet is still too vast and unspecified that
you can really waste a lot of time searching. But then perhaps I just am
not as proficient on the Net as I should be. At this time I will continue
to keep Dialog for the real specific searches. The search strategies can
also be easily incorporated into the different search engines on the Net.
Tammy Dineen
We have both Internet access and Dialog. We use Dialog much less than
previously but find it better for ERIC (Ask Eric ok but not the same) and
for newspaper and magazine searches. Although some papers and magazines are
available on internet, I do not find them as searchable as on Dialog. The
search strategies are similar when using the search engines such as Yahoo,
Altavista, etc. but each of these has slightly different ways to narrow a
search so you don't have 1000's of citations, many useless. I haven't yet
mastered thes techniques but they all have "help" options.
Nancy Lindsay Platt HS Meriden, CT
Seriously, think of the information that you get from Dialog. Now think of
how you would get the same information from the Web. Think of the quality
of information from both sources, the organization, the ease of searching.
A lot of work goes into Dialog, both from the organization and from the
database producers. You can count on the information value. Do you get the
same thing from the Web?
My feeling is to keep your Dialog account and keep the lessons. Being able
to construct a tight, focused database search will be an important skill
learned. It will carry over to any database system and should provide a
nice boost for the students as they further their education.
Dan Robinson
H.W. Wilson Company
Bronx, NY
drobinson@info.hwwilson.com
In response to Cheryl's post concerning Dialog and replacing it with the
Internet. The Internet should be seen as a separate research tool. It will
not replace Dialog. However, according to a mailing I received last fall
from Knight-Ridder they are discontinuing their school accounts and are
asking current school users to pick other services, such as, Electric
Library or Ebesco magazines. They offered schools a special discount to
change to one of these other services. It was my understanding that they
were discontinuing Dialog services to elementary schools this school year
1996-97 and all schools in 1997-98.
Kathy Geronzin
Northeast MS-HS Librarian
Goose Lake, IA 52060
319-577-2249
FAX 319-577-2248
kgeronzin@po-1.northeast.k12.ia.us
Hello, Cheryl,
I am one of the LM_netters and used to teach Dialog Classmate here
at State Univ. of West Ga. to our library media specialists in our
training program. Two years ago, I scrapped out Dialog Classmate from my
online course because the students (militant as they were!) refused to
learn it. They said they will never use Dialog in their media centers.
They demanded Internet. I had to revamp the course. It worked beautifully.
-------Leticia Ekhaml, Prof. of Research, Media and Tech., State Univ. of
West Georgia
Cheryl: You have hit something that I have been examining this year.
Starting in l989 we embedded DIALOG into our Upper school
curriculum--where it still is. We use it for our upper level students
who need to be familiar with scholarly databases and we have used it,
also, to formalize their search techniques. But now I can see we need to
shift some things because of internet availability. It won't be this
year but I am talking to other users I know and if they haven't already
dropped it, they will soon. Barbara Weathers
Cheryl,
I WISH it were dead! I hated using DIALOG in my last school, mainly because
it was too sophisticated for the students to use, so I had to do the
searches, and I've always felt it's easier to miss something if you aren't
doing your own search. Although we have widespread use of the Internet here,
and I haven't used my DIALOG account in 3 years, you may not want to abandon
that type of database searching altogether, because not all of that stuff is
available on the Internet. What I did was switch to OCLC's FirstSearch, which
is limited to a lesser number of databases, but is much user friendly and
kids can do it with a little training. I just bought cards with 10 searches
each per card and let people access it through the Internet. But there are
other ways to do it. To learn more about it, go to www.oclc.org and check it
out.
Jody
Cheryl,
I'll be interested in hearing your answers to this question. We dropped
Dialog last spring when we had Internet access for a year. Nobody had even
asked for Dialog and the $75.00 yearly access was too steep for the little
use it had gotten.
Jane DeNeve
wdlib@netins.net
I too was a heavy Dialog user. We have now switched to using our catalog
(Alexandria), MAS, and SIRS to teach Search Strategies. We also use
Electric Library but it uses relational searching. Last I checked, you
could still use DIALOG, but it seemed to me they really wanted to phase out
their educational market. Too bad.
Rosemary Knapp
Library-Media Specialist
Camas High School
1612 NE Garfield
Camas, WA 98607
rknapp@teleport.com
We only used DIALOG occasionally in a few upper division
classes--Economics, especially. We found it's too much trouble, not
user friendly enough, and it seems they are moving away from Academic
clients. Everything seems more and more corporate, and their
workshops for Academia have long ago been phased out. I think we
will soon let our account lapse. With all the other resources on CD
and the internet, we simply don't have the need (or the time) for
this cumbersome system. Wouldn't it be nice not to file those blue
sheets for those millions of files that have nothing to do with my
students?
Shannon Acedo
Assistant Librarian
Marlborough School
Los Angeles CA
acedos@marlborough.la.ca.us
I still use DIALOG especially since it has an increasing amount of
fulltext items. I am not convinced that the Internet is easily
accessible in the area of fulltext periodical articles. I do not have
a fulltext cd periodical database at this time. I keep working and
agonizing over what to purchase. I know that Dialog has cancelled
middle school accounts; I am not sure how long high school accounts
will exist. I will be interested in responses you receive. Please post
a hit.
TIA,
Kate
--
Kathleen M. Thomas Work 414-748-4626 Ripon HS Media Center
Ripon, WI 54971-0991
Go Packers - Super Bowl Champions
I do still teach anduse Dialog. I think you can find much more
authoritative information using it than the internet.
Shaorn Hamer
Hopkinton Middle/High School
I still use Dialog, but it has not been needed as often. We use it if we
absolutely cannot find information on a subject anywhere else. We still
find that there are times when we need it.
Pat Carnes
Junior-Senior High Library/Media Specialist
Emerson-Hubbard Community Schools
Emerson, NE 68733
Hi, Cheryl. I haven't used Dialog in a year and a half now and will
probably drop it for next year.
Val Ritenour
Phone 410-887-3545 Loch Raven High School Fax 410-887-3527
1212 Cowpens Avenue
Towson, MD 21286
ritenour@umd5.umd.edu
We had DIALOG access at our college library for many years. The librarians did
the searching, however, not the students.
We don't use it anymore. We have ERIC and PsycLit (two of the most popular
databases for our searches) on CD-ROM, and available on our campus network.
I'm not even sure we even subscribe to DIALOG anymore.
When we did the DIALOG searching, we did have a search sheet/patron info sheet
(so we could match up the patron with the "P" number given by DIALOG for
off-hours printing. Since we now have student access to Internet, we no longer
provide a sheet. We try to impart search strategies during our bibliographic
instruction sessions with classes, but the students do their own thing.
Barbara
In a former district, I used and taught Dialog classes, however we do not
have Dialog access now. I liked it but I now use EBSCO MAS Elite and their
Health Source and Science Databases plus we have EBSCO Host on Internet and
they are very user friendly and easy for students to use. We get updates
and have full-text. It seems to me to be more on high school level, used
much more and haven't felt a compelling need for Dialog. Peggy LaPorte
We still use Dialog, although not to the degree that we used to with all of
the other stuff that is available now. I use to teach it formally and
require every student (from selected classes) to do a search using it. Now
we just use it on an as-needed basis. Usually we use the magazine or
periodical indexes. I hope that we can keep it as an option because it
still works very well for us at times.
Ann Girres
St. Thomas Academy
St. Paul, MN
agirres@metro2.k12.mn.us
****************************************************************************
**Cheryl Nielsen "Every child should be a whys guy!"
Valley Comm. School
23493 Canoe Rd.
Elgin, IA 52141
cnielsen@elgin.polaristel.net
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