What should we acquire from CQ Press?

CQ Researcher

At 929 bucks, the CQ Researcher is one of the best bargains in the reference field. Besides its remarkable job in discussing a spectrum of current problems, it has improved its usefulness. By clicking on a footnote, you find a citation to the article, and occasionally a hyperlink to the document itself… particularly if the document has been issued by a think tank or government entity. The same holds true for its bibliography, and since the issues discussed are often best discussed by commissions, think tanks or congressional committees, this provides easy access to documentation that was often beyond the ken of our students to retrieve or beyond their energy level to pursue. (You know the old info science law that states “people will not use information that they perceive to be too difficult to access”).
FYI, I routinely review the bibliographies of CQ to locate good titles for the Gavilan book collection.

CQ Global Researcher

This new product is even better than CQ Researcher and a fantastic bargain at 354 bucks. (You get 52 weekly issues) It is not threatened by any competitor – it is very different in construct and focus than Opposing Viewpoints. That is because it focuses on issues that are less cut and dried, such as Turkey and its relationship to the EU. The bibliography and foot notes are hyperlinked to the article or a citation for the article, but since so much of this material comes from various non-commercial sources, the article tends to provide the same rich backup of readings that Opposing Viewpoints provides for its discussions. It still provides the pro and con debates on key points. For example, admission of Turkey to the EU has a pro and con contribution. It also provides a chronology on the topic, followed by short features for expanded discussion; a sampling of related international perspectives; maps and graphs; bibliographies of key sources; next steps for additional reading; and author profiles. There are bells and whistles I like. It tracks what you looked at including footnotes you have clicked, listing your readings, much like Amazon remembers what you last looked for in their database. It has a wonderful idea that is particularly useful for our students, a global map. By clicking on say, Australia, it brings up any and all recent articles that reference Australia. This is a non-verbal method of finding information, of course, and frees the student unsure as to what search terms to use, or even how to spell Australia. It may be my imagination, but I think CQ is also attempting to make the document more graphically appealing. There are lots of color shots and color graphics. Of course, given its focus, the product will not be used as much as CQ Researcher or Opposing Viewpoints, but as the campus moves to a more “global” curriculum, it will be increasingly valuable. In that regard, CQ Global Researcher adds a new feature, “voices from abroad.”
Given their price, and the focus of the other electronic products offered by CQ, I think we can survive on just these two online products; CQ Researcher and CQ Global Researcher.
Don