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List:       web4lib
Subject:    [WEB4LIB] Silver Platter, EBSCO, ProQuest front ends
From:       PoulinMW () lemoyne ! edu (Mike Poulin)
Date:       2002-06-28 12:36:28
Message-ID: sd1c5869.007 () kiwi ! lemoyne ! edu
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Hi Stacy,
 
For the 3 databases you mention -- for us — the critical issue is how the Thesaurus \
Searching works because if you do not use the Thesaurus — we don't get good results.  \
 SilverPlatter has had one of the better (though at times non-intuitive and clunky) \
interfaces which allows for performing very high powered searches.  Ebsco's \
implementation of thesaurus searching has been impossible to use.  While I have not \
seen a ProQuest database with a thesaurus lately —  my rememberance was that it also \
did not work well.  
Ebsco is about to come out with a new release (mid-July) which appears to have many \
features which improve the thesaurus searching (if they make it into the final cut) — \
this based on a "booth  demo" at ALA.   
 If you can wait until the new release to assess — I think they might well be worth a \
serious look.    
> From what I saw in the Beta version — their displays of citations/abstracts/ links \
> to full text/ etc -- will probably be the best in the industry when the new release \
> comes out (personal opinion).  The linking to full-text both within EbscoHost and \
> to external resources (Jstor, ScienceDirect,  etc.) is supposed to be improved with \
> the next release.
 
Proquest — I think you would want to get a trial and assess yourself.  I personally \
find the ProQuest interface significantly less pleasant than Ebsco's and generally \
get poorer results with my ProQuest searches.  
That all said in general -  for thesaurus based databases these are the things I look \
for --  
— Searching the thesaurus needs to be simple and intuitive 
— One should be directed to a record which have
         — scope notes
         — narrower,  broader, and related terms
         —  the ability to explode the search (the current term and all the narrower \
                terms)
        —   the ability to create sets or create complex searches and make changes \
                (edits) and combine in a variety of ways.
        — if it is a MESH record - you should be able to select from the limits which \
vary from term to term (eg.  aspirin -  adverse affects) — When one clicks on a \
thesaurus term in a bibliographic record - the search should take you back to the \
thesaurus so you might read the scope notes, explode the term, select related terms.  \
 You need to make your own assessment on what features you need, what level of power \
searching you find necessary.  Ask for a trials and run sample searches against  all \
the candidates.  Use that to try and figure out which works best at your site.  
Mike
 
 
-- 
/************************************************************/
Michael Poulin
Librarian for the Sciences and Electronic Resources
Noreen Reale Falcone Library
Le Moyne College
1429 Salt Springs Road
Syracuse, NY 13214
 
phone: 315-445-4332
fax:  315-445-4642
email:  poulinmw@mail.lemoyne.edu
/************************************************************/
 


> > > Stacy Pober <stacy.pober@manhattan.edu> 06/28/02 11:02AM >>>
We currently get Medline, PsycInfo, ERIC, and some other databases through
Silver Platter.  I'm trying to evaluate whether we would be better off 
getting some or all of these through another one of the vendors, such as 
EBSCOhost or ProQuest (we already get general databases both of these vendors.) 

For those of you who have made this switch, or have just used all three 
front ends to get at some of the non-full-text databases such as Medline, 
what have you found to be the reaction of your users to making the switch?

I find the ProQuest interface to be the most user-friendly of the three, but
EBSCOhost is not all that far behind. Are there some major differences you've
seen or significant user preferences on the part of your students and faculty?

The students will most likely use whatever front-end we provide, but the 
faculty may be less flexible about this.  The advantage of being able to find
full-text directly when searching Medline or PsycInfo in one of the other
sources should make the switch easier for them to adjust to.  (Or that's 
what I hope, anyway.)

Stacy Pober
Information Alchemist
Manhattan College Library
http://www.manhattan.edu/library/ 
stacy.pober@manhattan.edu 



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