HIT: choosing news databases

[Barbara Haynes <bhaynes@SSD.K12.MN.US>]

Thanks to those of you who helped me out with this difficult choice!  My
conclusions in a nutshell were these:
        -Electric Library is popular with the high school kids.  It seems
very intuitive; you always seem to find what you want.  However, it does not
have the limiting capabilities that Proquest, NewsBank and Ebsco have.  No
CD-ROM backup.
        -UMI Proquest can be accessed from home and has CD-ROM backup, which
is a life-saver during network crashes. It is also quite pricey.
        -As CD-ROM products, EBSCO and NewsBank were popular,as well as
superTOM.
        -The most desirable is a web-based product for continuous updating,
backed by a CD-ROM version (provided at usually half the cost or less) for
reliability.

        There are so many intricacies to this decision that it has made my
head spin.  We are now trying out a free trial of SIRS Researcher.

        What follows are some responses from the listserv:

We have been trial using EBSCO's Internet product and I like it much
better than Proquest.  I do not like Electric Library at all, but I know
that a lot of people do.  Michele
                        --------------------
We use Electric Library and have been extremely satisfied with it.  One of
our English teachers came in the other day and said this was the first year
her kids didn't complain that they "couldn't find anything" on their topic.
They like one stop shopping.  I encourage them to use print also, but they
are finding so much on Electric Library it's hard to convince them to go
back to books.
                                --------------------
We just completed trials on EBSCO Host, Electric Library,
SuperTOM, and SIRS Researcher on the Web. E Library was the
overwhelming choice of our district's librarians. We hope
our district tech coordinator will be able to subscribe us
all for next year - our individual school budgets will not
bear the cost.
                        ------------------------
Our high school has Newsbank, as well as Ebsco. I am really happy
with Newsbank for a couple of reasons. Newsbank is extremely easy to
work with, is self-explanatory, and owns many titles. Also, the
articles aren't extremely long, which, for kids on the go who have
little patience to do research, it suits their needs just fine. But
beware, the CD version has different dates on different CD. At the
current time we only have 1997 on our CD-R OM tower, because all the
other bays are currently occupied by other CD's.
                        -----------------------------
As I understand it, UMI lets anyone in your district log on at home.  This
would be a great PR tool.  I know one librarian who has it and is very
happy with UMI.  She is in a acadmic school with lots of students doing
research.  I currently have Electric Library, and it seems to have lots of
hits.  However, it seems a little expensive for more than one station.
                        --------------------------------
Barbara,  I am presently in a Middle School and we use Electric Library,
Newsbank and Ebsco's Middle Search Plus on a Mac platform  - we are currently
previewing UMI's Junior Quest.  Electric Library would be too difficult for an
elementary school, unless they have an easier version.  I prefer Middle Search
at the middle school because it is primarily a magazine index, where Newsbank
has more newspapers which tend to be more useful with our high school
curriculum.  UMI also looks good because it has products for each level.  Last
year I did a comparison of the whole text offerings UMI, Newsbank and Middle
Search and preferred the magazines included in Middle Search.  Good luck with
your decision.
                        ----------------------------------
WE STARTED ELECTRIC LIBRARY THIS YEAR.  (whoops, didn't mean to shout).
The kids love it.  We love it.  Easy to use and usually many hits.
                        ------------------------------
We did the trial subscription to ProQuest and my staff really liked it.
They especially liked that kids could access from home, as many of our
students live a way out from town.  Most of the kids found it easy to
use, but had trouble narrowing their search to get what they wanted.
The trial was easy to set up and the company is easy to work with.
                        --------------------------
We have had Electric Library with a license for 5 computers since January
and love it.  Students can find information in a short time and it can be
printed out so they can take it with them.  I haven't tried any of the
others but we do have SIRS Researcher and also like that.










Barbara Haynes, Library Media Specialist
Stewartville High School,Stewartville, MN
bhaynes@ssd.k12.mn.us

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