EBSCO or ProQuest?

I vote to change from ProQuest to EBSCO

Here is my reasoning

1. Why move to EBSCO from Proquest?

Of the two candidates, one consolidator is growing in holdings and one is decreasing. A 2006 study showed that EBSCO had almost 20% more full text title holdings than ProQuest. Those of us using ProQuest have noted the loss of useful titles over the past few years. However, it is more useful to look at the central titles judged essential by Katz et. al, for a community college library. I have my own list of essential titles, based on Katz and my own experience, and compared the holdings of the two candidates in 8 topics. The winner of the most holdings of relevant titles was EBSCO.

2. Findings: Scores (in percentage of key holdings)


Topic E Score ,P score
General Books & Reading 100 ,100
Humanities 93.7, 75
American Studies 100, 80
Visual Arts 100, 37.5
American History 100 ,50
American Literature and English 94.4, 77.7
Economics /Global issues 77.7 ,77.7
Business 77.7 ,60

3. Summary of my review

Given these scores, and the trend line, of one consolidator increasing coverage and the other decreasing, I suggest that the selection arrow is pointing at EBSCO. In fact, there are a few major titles that one finds now only in EBSCO. These include Forbes, PMLA, and several major Art journals ( even though our paper copies are more valuable, we need to maintain an electronic index to articles).


4. Ease of use

But how about user friendliness and the quality of the search engine? Our colleagues at the California Community College Library Consortium compared the two rivals in 2005. They compared database functionality, appropriateness of format ( bibliographic vs full text), information content, search interface, user support service and cost, and came up with an overall assessment. They concluded the Expanded Academic ASAP database of the highest quality due to the superior indexing structure and search interface.” My own view is that the search engine on EBSCO often picks up more chaff along with the wheat, but given the fact that one is a database with a more dynamic collection maintenance, I suggest it is a good time to bite the bullet and move to EBSCO. There is a cost of course, in changing all our online modules and many instructor work sheets. But many modules could be revised, I assume, by the reference librarians when we are not busy helping students.

5. The added support of Opposing Viewpoints and CQ Researcher

One of the major uses of our periodical collection is to support English and Social Science classes where students must defend on paper a point of view by “researching” the topic using library materials. The addition of the enormously rich collection of magazine articles that are supplied full text in the Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center provides a “utility outfielder” that can handle almost any central topic that is likely to be addressed. I hasten to add that CQ Researcher provides good to excellent support as well, but the design of Opposing Viewpoints allows a rich source of full-text magazine articles not available in CQ. Another factor that is important for our ESL students is that Opposing Viewpoints has in fact, “graded” the readability of their resources, using the Lexile scale. It is likely too complicated to get a student to fix a readability level in a library research project, but it can be reassuring to an instructor to know that there are selections that can be read and comprehended at the 10th or 11th grade level. For example, Foreign Policy and Wilson Quarterly articles often fall in the 10th grade reading level.

6. Suggested package.

The California Premier Package sells for 21,455 dollars. It seems useful to include the CINAHL Plus since a review by Dana and me of about 80 full text serials included showed they had, in fact, included the essential journals such as Am J or Nursing, J of Nursing Education, J of Practical Nuring, Nursing, Nursing outlook, International Nursing Review, and RN. The add-on cost of CINAHL Plus if ordered with the California Premier Package is 1806 dollars. The add-on cost for the essential Newspaper Source Plus is $3371.