Re: HIT:TECH:CD-ROM vs Web access

[rich tabis <tabis@infonline.net>]

Dear Colleagues,
        After reading the responses to my question concerning CD-ROM vs WEB
access for electronic databases like SIRS and Wilson Biographies, I am
afraid that I am still undecided.  My own thoughts/concerns are: 1)It is
very inconvenient to reinstall the new SIRS CD three times/yr on each
computer that accesses it.  (Does everyone do this?); 2)When the
Internet goes down, there goes the program; 3)Only the computers hooked
up to the Internet would be able to access the database; 4) With SIRS
Researcher, which are rather long articles, will it be as easy to print
only certain lines from the WEB article (won't you have to highlight the
lines and then save them to a word pro before printing?); 5)How are the
graphics and printing of them on the WEB?   Does anyone out there know
if you can try out the SIRS databases on the WEB for free?  I just read
that you can try the Wilson databases (CD or Web) for free.  Here are
the responses I received:

Funny you should post this message, as it has just been tested and
proven at our HS this past year.  Right now, the Internet does  not
offer the best access for research for students as THE SOLE BACKUP or
primary source because it is too slow.  We tried it both ways, since
there was much reluctance in our school system to convert from CD access
(on a network- LAN) to the Internet (high speed line - networked - WAN).

     The Internet poses the following disadvantages:

1.  it is often slow
2.  students lack patience
3.  there are more steps to accessing information via the Internet than
on a CD in-house, thus slowing down the process further
4.  when accessing a database on the Internet, first a login is needed,
then information located must be downloaded (this slows the process down
accessing information)
5.  there is a time lag between one screen loading and another
6.  when the server is down at a particular site (they say this won't
happen, but it does, frequently) what are your students to do?
7.  when there is heavy use of a particular site, the access is slowed
considerably

If I had the choice, which I do now, I will stick with my RELIABLE CD
access.  We also have Wilson Biographies, SIRS, and some of the other
programs you've suggested along with ProQuest Research One (magazine,
newspaper database).

Joann W. Tillberg


Not only faster, but more consistently.
Carl Seale, Librarian


We switched from SIRS Researcher and Discoverer on CD ROM to Web access
and
love it!  I can now instruct students on how to use these resources in a
lab setting vs. on a screen with a video projector.  It also helps us to
direct our student research to Web appropriate sources vs. surfing.

Deb Larson


        Just a thought on the CD vs Web access.  A year ago our high
school got
a new CD tower, but the SIRS databases (Researcher, Govt Reporter and
Renaissance) that we had never worked right for very long at a time.
Finally in April the tower was sent back to the manufacturer, who
returned it without fixing it, and then lost it when we returned it the
second time.  The short of it is that we had very little use of any of
our CD's for this entire year.  I just learned at ALA that SIRS
costs the same whether on CD or Web - I would definitely go with the Web
access after our experience.  Haven't used CB unfortunately.

Nancy Badertscher


 I was considering the pros and cons of CD vs. internet for magazines.
One day I was helping a student print an article off Proquest Direct
on the web.  Later that day I picked up the latest issue of Time.  The
article she had accessed was from this issue! No way would she have
had CD access to it - or even an index that would have included it.
Currency, currency, currency!!!

Jill Brown


Lois Tabis, Librarian
Sharpsville HS, Sharpsville, PA
tabis@infonline.net

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