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This is a long overdue posting but never the less, I would like to thank everyone who responded very much for their input. I have compiled a list of the responses: Thank you all! Carole Holway Media Specialist Tampa Preparatory School Tampa, Florida carole_holway@tampaprep.usf.edu > I have been using EBSCO for several years and have been happy. I >> considered ProQuest but felt that for the money EBSCO was a better >> value based on our needs and our students. >> For English we have Galenet "Discovering Authors" and "Shakespeare" >> and this has worked well plus I use Monarch Notes on CD for character >> analysis, etc. > We have used SIRS, Electric Library and EBSCO and they are all wonderful. If you can only have one I would suggest Electric Library. It is user friendly and gives you charts, maps, pictures, TV, books, magazine and newspaper articles. I think they were just bought by Proquest, but I am not sure. SIRS is also user friendly and written in a language that is easy for high school students to comprehend. It covers many, many topics. The students really like it also. > > > Just last year Dade County media specialists and teachers had to make the same decision you have to make now about online databases. Vendors came and presented their products to a committee (there were about 20 of us teachers and media specialists from different grade levels). The committee took the products to their schools and tried them with students and teachers. If you look at Dade county's web page: dcps.dade.k12.fl.us you'll see what we chose as follows: Bell & Howell (formerly ProQuest) Elementary level to 5th grade NewsBank (all grades) Gale Net (middle and high school) Sirs (middle and high school) Maps 101 Some of the schools inluded in the committee already had some of the databases and were very happy with them. I think we chose well. Some of our guidelines were authority, primary sources included, subject area coverage, frequency of updating, variety of opinions included, timeliness. I like Proquest the best followed by Infotrac SuperTom. We have Proquest Gold, am previewing SIRS online ( have had the stand alone version and really like it!), and previewing Discovering Authors. I think that's about it for now. We subscribed to Electric Library online and have really been pleased with its comprehensiveness. It gives students information from reference books, magazines, newspapers (better coverage than for example Infotrac), maps, pictures, and TV show. It is easy to use with one exception. It does not use any sub-topics as Infotrac does). It does allow Boolean searches though. In other words, you get a lot for your money. HS media specialists are looking at the following on-line services and elvaluating them: World's best poetry on-line Electric library/ProQuest Newsbank Sirs Ebsco elite Facts on file Grolier on line according to some at out meeting yesterday, for English - gale.net is very good We'll have more information later as we look at these things. You can contact the company and get free previews We have Proquest Gold, am previewing SIRS online ( have had the stand alone version and really like it!), and previewing Discovering Authors. I think that's about it for now. Ruth-Ann We have been using Proquest for 2 years now and like it. Kids are finding it wasy to search, and there are lots of good results. Consider the SIRS Renaissance database for English. They'll let you try them free for 30 or 60 days. When we selected our databases, we arranged for these trials and let the kids provide feedback. I prefer proquest direct because it has full text of both the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun. Since our small, rural county is close to both of these bigger places, these papers often have news about happenings in our small county. This allows research to be done in civics classes about our county since our local papers are too small to ever be indexed in any online service. Plus, I think Proquest is a great database and is in many colleges so our kids are prepared. I do think it is harder to use than some others, like Electric Library, but a whole lot better in quality and quantity. We have Ebsco Middle Search Plus and Infotrac. For your grade levels, I think Infotrac would be more useful. We have not had any trouble with either service. My favorite is Electric Library. Think the firm is Infonautics. We use proquest platinum and have been very pleased with the service. We had the "mostly abstracts" version of Ebsco so I'm planning to preview it again later in the spring. It will have to be really outstanding for me to switch. Proquest definitely meets our needs. My level is 9-12, and I like proquest bronze best. The list of magazines is not quite as exhaustive as Platinum and Ebsco. My students tend to find what they want sooner and do not grow discouraged wading through the massive amount of material provided in the large data bases. While many schools use elibrary, i found it did not give my students the depth of material they needed. All of these services will give you a free trial. Sign up for a couple of these when you have a research class coming to use the library and see what your students think. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-= All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law. To quit LM_NET (or set-reset NOMAIL or DIGEST), send email to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST 4) SET LM_NET MAIL * Please allow for confirmation from Listserv. 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