LM_NET: Library Media Networking
I asked for recommendations for magazine indexes and had a few answers. What
we seem to be finding is that there is no one, wonderful, do-it-all index. We
have ProQuest Direct now and are going to try Ebsco's on-line index. Thanks to
those of you who took time to answer. FYI someone asked what ProQuest Direct
online and ELibrary online were - they are magazine indexes found on the
internet and accessed with a fee paid to the company that produces them.
Someone also asked about Newsbank - the customer service # is (800)243-7694.
These are the answers I received:
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I have tried Ebsco and ProQuest. Of those two I prefer ProQuest, but
they both have lousy interfaces. Our best and most used source for
magazine articles is SIRS Researcher along with its companion SIRS
Renaissance. The problem is that you can't count them as a
comprehensive magazine index since they contain only selected articles.
I've been lucky so far to have both ProQuest and the SIRS programs
available. If I had to cut back though, I think I'd cut ProQuest, keep
SIRS and continue my print subscription to Abridged Readers' Guide to
cover the "comprehensive indexing" question.
I wish the SIRS people would come out with a comprehensive indexing
service.
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We use Newsbank newspapers and like it. I have had Ebsco MAS and it is a
problem. It errors out on my server all the time. I an trying Newsbank
magazine index and like it so far. Works just like the newspaper one. I
am going to try UMI as wll.
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I use SuperTom from InforTrac. This involves 2 CD's and we also have the
microsfische. I have used this for several years, and have upgraded from
1 CD to 2CD which provides full text, newspaper and reference books. It
is not cheap, over $3000 a year
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have been using InfoTrac (Super Tom) since 1988. I am going to change to
Ebsco MAS partially because they have a reduced price program with
California, but also because of frustration with InfoTrac. InfoTrac has a
new version which allows for Boolean searching and has many great features.
BUT at this time you can not mark titles to show they are in your library.
(Supposedly that feature will be added in a couple of months). Also, my
biggest frustration, -all- articles of magazines are not included in the
full text. Since I changed to the new version in Jan., I have found 16
articles wanted by students which were supposed to be full text but weren't.
There were also at least 8 that did not have the microfiche number listed
which meant using the cumbersome, inaccurate print index. Good luck
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are using Electric Library ON-line and are very pleased. My students
are finding more information than I could ever supply them with in house
in regards to current events.
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I LOVE Electric Library.
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I love SuperTom from Information Access and the only problem, really, is
that the microfiche is all indexed by fiche# instead of date or title of
magazine, so you get rather locked in to staying with the company. They
do have a print index by magazine title and date, but that's not very
efficient. It's a great program, though.
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Our middle school has had good luck with Ebsco's products. We upgraded from
MiddleSearch to Magazine Article Summaries Full Text Select this year.
Unfortunately, I am not as familiar with the other products you currently own,
but think quite highly of our MAS. It has a good depth to the bibliography
only citations and gives us a good number of full text hits. I have even used
it for some scholarly work I'm doing with librarianship. Good luck,
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Does anyone know of a good elementary, in-print set of books on the regions
of the U.S. or have any comments to make about the Steck-Vaughn series
called "This Land is Your Land"?
My music teachers would like to know of a good elementary music magazine for
teachers and/or for students.
JoAnn Belanger
132 S. Virginia Street
Antigo, WI 54409
715-623-6595
jbelange@antigoschools.k12.wi.us
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