Report of the Results from the

Metrowest Reference Committee’s

2006 Electronic Database Survey

The Metrowest MA Regional Library System Reference Committee created a survey to evaluate the effectiveness of the databases provided by Metrowest and the MBLC. There were 11 questions. Below are the results of the survey.

Question 1: Please rank the databases used most often.

Each database earned points according to how often they were picked and if they were 1^st choice, 2^nd choice, etc. i.e. If it was the respondent’s first choice, the database earned 6 pts, for 2^nd choice: 5 pts, 3^rd choice: 4 pts. There were a total of 142 responses.

Database	Total Points	Rank
Infotrac	799	#1
Newsbank	524	#2
FirstSearch (OCLC)	426	#3
New York Times Historical	375	#4
Worldbook Online	356	#5
Netlibrary (Provided by BPL)	187	#6

Question 2: Of the Gale Infotrac Databases, which is used most often?

Just as with the first question, all databases received points for how often they were picked and at what rank. Each first choice pick received 10 pts, 2^nd choice: 9 pts, 3^rd: 8 pts, etc. There were a total of 132 responses.

Database Title	Total Points	Rank
General Reference Center Gold	1194	#1
Expanded Academic ASAP	1078	#2
Biography Resource Center	1004	#3
Health Reference Center ASAP	825	#4
Contemporary Literary Criticism	687	#5
Infotrac Student Edition	542	#6
General Business File ASAP	504	#7
Business & Company ASAP	458	#8
Professional Collection	356	#9
Kids Infobits	295	#10

Question 3: Of the Newsbank databases, which papers do you search most?

All databases received points for how often there were picked and at what rank.

Each 1^st choice = 4 pts, 2^nd choice = 3 pts, 3^rd choice = 2 pts, 4^th choice = 1 pts. There were a total of 134 responses.

Newspaper	Total Points	Rank
Boston Globe	534	#1
Boston Herald	346	#2
Worcester Telegram & Gazette	161	#3
Springfield Republican	105	#4

Question 4: If it were possible to provide access to additional databases, which of the following types of materials and topics would be most helpful?

Again, points were assigned by how often and at what rank a topic was picked. There were 10 topics listed.

There were 109 responses

Topic	Total Points	Rank
General Reference	863	#1
Science Reference	851	#2
National / International Newspapers	818	#3
Massachusetts and local Newspapers	666	#4 - tie
Health	666	#4 - tie
Biography / Genealogy	601	#6
Librarianship / Book Reviews	585	#7
Business Reference	574	#8
Teens Grades 7-12	496	#9
Children’s PreK – 6	340	#10

Question 5: If there is a particular database you believe would be a useful addition to the databases currently being offered, please list it below.

Below are databases that were suggested two or more times.

There were 77 responses.

Database Title	# of times it was suggested
Student Resource Center	9
Boston Globe Archives	8
Ancestry.com	7
Facts on file	6
Science Resource Center	5
Ancestry Library Edition	4
Books In Print Online	4
Opposing Viewpoints	4
Heritage Quest	3
History Resource Center	3
Reference USA	3
Consumer Reports	2
CQ Researcher	2
D&B Million Dollar Directory	2
Ebscohost	2
Granger's index to poetry	2
Grolier	2
Lands & People	2
LexisNexis	2
Literature Resource Ctr	2
Newsbanks Metropolitan Boston Newspaper Index	2
Oxford English Dictionary	2
SIRS	2

Question 6a: Does your library offer access to databases other than those listed in Question 1?

There were a total of 133 responses

	# of people	% of responses
YES	109	82%
NO	24	18%

Question 6b: If you answered yes to question 6a, please enter the name of the database or databases.

Below are databases that were suggested two or more times.

There were 100 responses.

Database Title	# of times it was suggested
RefUSA	21
CQ Researcher	14
Encyclopedia Britannica	13
Heritage Quest	12
Books in Print	10
Grolier	10
Science Resource ctr	10
Student Resource Center	10
Consumer Reports	9
CorpTech	9
JSTOR	8
Oxford English Dictionary	8
Westlaw	7
Ancestry Library Edition	6
EBSCO	6
Greenwood Daily Life	6
Opposing Viewpoints	6
P4AAntiques	6
Ancestry	5
Granger's world of Poetry	5
Grove Dictionary of Art	5
Morningstar	5
SIRS	5
American History	4
Learning Express	4
LexisNexis	4
Magill on Literature Plus	4
Proquest Direct	4
Valueline	4
ABC-CLIO	3
Art Bibliographies Modern	3
Bookletters	3
Consumer's Checkbook	3
CultureGrams	3
issues and controversies	3
LexisNexis - Academic Universe	3
New England Ancestry	3
PsychInfo	3
Rosetta Stone	3
twayne's authors	3
Wilson OmniFile	3
Academic Search Premier	2
Access Science	2
Ancestry & Heritage	2
Ancestry.com	2
Artstor	2
Boston Globe Archive	2
CAIO	2
Country Reports	2
Digital Sanborn Maps	2
Ebsco - Student Research Center	2
Encyclopedia Americana	2
ERIC	2
Ferguson's Career Guidance	2
Fiction Catalog	2
grove Music Online	2
LearnATest.com	2
Literature Resource Ctr	2
Medline	2
Newsbank Electronic Image Editions	2
Project MUSE	2
PsycARTICLES	2
Scribner's writers	2
Sociological Abstracts	2

Question 7: Has your library stopped subscribing to periodicals, reference materials, other databases, or other materials as a result of your access to Metrowest and MBLC online databases?

There were a total of 134 responses.

	# of responses	% of responses
YES	80	59.70%
NO	54	40.30%

Question 7b: If you answered yes to the question above, please list the titles of the subscriptions.

There were a total of 74 responses.

Below is a list of subscriptions that were mentioned two or more times.

Subscription Title	# of responses
Contemporary Literary Criticism	11
Reader's Guide to Periodicals	11
Contemporary Authors	9
New York Times on Microfilm	6
Book Review digest	4
Boston Globe Index	3
20th Century Library Criticism	2
Biography Index	2
Facts on File	2
Infotrac	2
New York Times index	2
Newsbank	2
Time	2
Worldbook Online	2

Additional Comments that were made on this question:

Due to budget cuts, we canceled many periodicals that are FT on InfoTrac: several weekly news magazines

I have not bothered to purchase a new print edition of World Book Encyclopedia. There is no need when World Book Online is so wonderful.

I have scaled back many magazines that are not as frequently used by students if I know they are available on Infotrac. I use the money to purchase other things, like more leisure reading magazines (sports, teen life, etc)

If we did not have access through Metrowest, our library would have to consider all the subscriptions for our own purchase--we couldn't pay for them all; we'd have to replace at least some of what Metrowest provides.

I've only been here 4 months, so I'm not sure. "I don't know" is my answer, but there's no button for it.

Many of our journals if they are available in electronic form.

many of the periodicals which are available as full text in the General Reference Center index and Expanded Academic index

microfilm of general periodicals, Readers' Guide

More that we have stopped keeping back issues of many things.

New York Times microfilm, probably others

Newspapers

Not sure of exact titles but reference materials in general.

See other lists from Newton Free Library's librarians who have taken this survey.

several periodicals and CLC

some magazines, approx 5-10 titles some reference material, approx 10 titles

The only one I know about is CLC, but there may be others.

Too many to list!

Various magazines and journals, especially those that were cost-prohibitive and were covered in full-text through databases.

We are going through this process currently -- with a $3000 decrease in periodicals spending for the next fiscal year, we're looking at existing coverage in databases as one of the factors we will be using to determine what periodicals could be cut.

We don't subscribe to any newspapers as a result of NYT historical and Newsbank.

We have canceled a number of print magazine subscriptions since access to Infotrac has been provided. We also subscribed to Newsbank, but, at that time, it was not the MA newspapers database.

What Do I Read Next?

Will be dropping New York Times on Microfilm - just too pricey

Question 8: What population do you serve?

We had three choices, Adults, Children / Pre K – grade 6, and Teens / grades 7-12. We realized we should have had a fourth choice, “all of the above”. A number of Librarians who responded to this question said they checked off “Adults” even though they actually serve all populations.

There were 125 responses.

Population Type	# of Responses	Percentage
Adults	82	57.7%
Children / Pre K – 6	0	0
Teens / Grades 7 – 12	43	30.3 %

Question 9: What type of library do you work for?

There are four choices, Academic, Public, Special, and School.

Our membership is comprised of 28 Academic, 38 Public, 235 School, and 50 Special libraries.

There were 51 responses.

Library Type	# of responses	Percentage
Academic	15	10.6%
Public	80	56.7%
Special	4	2.8%
School	42	29.80%

Question 10: If you have any comments or suggestions, please enter them here:

There were 51 responses. Here are the responses, not including those stating they serve more than one population.

access to the databases is often very slow

Do something to make patrons more aware of the fact that many databases are available from home with a library card. Perhaps articles in regional & local newspapers.

Gale's Student Resource Center is our most used and valued database. It is an extremely effective teaching tool because it brings together books, magazines, primary documents and multimedia and is relevant to the Massachusetts Frameworks.

HI. Seems like I've recently acquired Gale Virtual Reference Library. Just began using it Fabulous for our high school library!

I am new here and we don't have links to all of the databases in question 1 (NYT Historical!) and I don't know how to get copies of the usage reports to see which ones are really most used.

I like Proquest Periodicals because it has more full text articles. I serve adults and teens but would like books and posters for teens if I win the raffle.

I recommend that Metrowest or the state have several business librarians on their advisory team, or a business subgroup, with both academic and public library members.

I serve adults who work with children, so I collect for all ages. I love telling people that these databases are available with a public library card - they are always so amazed.

I use the databases all the time. They are an important part of our library collection.

I wish that World Book Online did not have home access problems. Many of my students have reported access problems at home. I understand that it is an issue with the family computer's security systems, but I don't know why the same problem does not exist

I would like to see a policy whereby all students in Metrowest-area schools have access to all Metrowest library databases. This should be negotiated with database vendors. Currently, METCO students and some students in regional high schools don't have eq

If you need to you can trim out some of the Gale databases, such as Professional Collection, but I would NOT lose all of them - you must keep Expanded Academic, General BusinessFile, and Reference Center Gold.

InfoTrac is awesome and the most needed. Please try not to cut any pieces of it!

It bothers me that this survey doesn't even have an identification line for middle school kids (Gr. 6-8). The kids I serve read and work from grade levels 2-10 and I need resources for †hat complete range. I greatly appreciate what the state gives us, es

It would be helpful if the Historical NYTimes were offered to academic libraries.

Keep up the good work. Thank you for providing what you do.

My grades are 6,7,8 I was very disappointed when Metrowest discontinued the student resource center (Infotrac) as I now have to pay for the subscription. The periodical databases have allowed me to reduce the number of back issues I save on the shelves

OCLC First Search is absolutely critical; I would also really like having Article First access back again (I'm the ILL Librarian!).

Our teachers loved using the Student Resource Center when it was available on Infotrac via MMRLS! We'd be thrilled to see the History and/or Science Resource Centers included. They are expensive, but extremely useful.

Question 4: collection development tools Question 8: also serve teens and some younger children.

Thank you! The online database you provide are invaluable.

Thanks for the databases provided by Metrowest. All are important reference tools used by staff and the public.

Thanks for the survey. I wish our voice could be heard in proportion to our percentage of membership. Still feels like public librarians call the shots.

The databases are indispensable--many thanks

The savings to us on expensive subscriptions has been significant enabling us to buy things like the genealogy databases. Highest on my wish-list would be a nationwide newspaper database. (Years ago we had one from Dialog? as I recall.) Second would be His

This funding is a cornerstone of my program. In a time of squeezed budgets, the database funding not only makes my program better, but keeps our standards strong! (That is to say that without the "carrot" of database access, many school libraries would f

We really appreciate and use the databases and the new MBLC eBooks.

We receive Daily Life Online. That could be useful to most libraries.

We use the Historic NY Times all the time, and the Biography Resource Center is a great tool for Adults and Students.

You provide a valuable service! We could never afford the databases you provide to our middle school without your help!

Your databases are excellent and really important for our patrons. Well done.

Your services both in school and from home are wonderful.