Swan Song & Issues Unresolved | Online Databases
AFTER 28 YEARS, 264 columns, 15 annual database marketplace surveys, and nearly half a million words, I am calling it quits for Online Databases. Library Journal and I are parting amicably: the responsibilities of administration and the concentration ...
Online Databases: ERIC’s Extreme Makeover
ERIC, one of the first online bibliographic databases, was started in 1966-when subject-themed clearinghouses were established to gather, index, and input bibliographic information and make available journal articles and gray literature. The ERIC database...
Online Databases: Getting the User’s Attention
Can we deliver information the way our users want it-cheap, fast, and good? According to Stewart Bodner, associate chief librarian of the New York Public Library, that's what users desire and what librarians and vendors must provide. But at least in the p...
Online Databases: Moving History Forward
Current events, current awareness, and faster news mean the immediate present often dominates our worldview. But for many researchers, history informs the latest hot topic.ABC-CLIO redesignsLast year, ABC-CLIO celebrated its 50th anniversary and redesigne...
Online Databases: Celebrating A&I Longevity
Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Only the H.W. Wilson Co., at 108, has created an older abstracting and indexing tool. Despite the phenomenal developments in technology in the 20th century, abstracting and i...
Online Databases: Remaining Relevant Online
For the annual database Marketplace survey (LJ 5/15/07, p. 34–48), we ask vendors what major trends will most affect the future of online products and services. Worries about declining library budgets topped the list in 2002 and 2004. Budgets are st...
Hidden Conference Gems
After 27 years of writing ten columns per year, starting this month I will be cutting back to just five per year, in addition to the annual Database Marketplace. My next column will appear in January. From now on, I will concentrate on covering e-content ...
Reaching the Net Gen
IT'S tempting to characterize all young people as wired digital masters who use technology in mysterious ways. But broad generalization can be dangerous, and I was especially glad to see caution urged by several speakers at the 2009 annual meeting of the ...
E-Access Changes Everything
It is tempting to fall into a funk with budget cuts looming, but the 29th annual Charleston Conference on Issues in Book and Serials Acquisition, held in November, took a positive approach with a theme of “Necessity Is the Mother of Invention.̶...
Online Databases: A New-Old Role for Libraries
In the popular television show Life on Mars, the hero is transported 35 years back in time. At first things seem normal, but then he begins to see odd differences (like no mobile phones or personal computers). Well, I began to feel a bit like that charact...