subscription libraries out there?

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From: Michele McGinnis (mm@kk.org)
Date: Thu Nov 17 2005 - 14:36:20 PST


Message-Id: <a0623090bbfa2a0b6ed52@[192.168.0.7]>
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 14:36:20 -0800
From: Michele McGinnis <mm@kk.org>
Subject: subscription libraries out there?

In San Francisco, I can use my public library's online databases from
work or home and they don't (directly) cost me a dime. For your
non-info-pro -- this is a hell of a deal. However, say you lived
somewhere without access to a public library with a large or good
selection of online databases. If you wanted to do research,
remotely, what would you do?

The ideal answer I'm looking for is some type of subscription
library. Maybe it's a consortium of small libraries that have pooled
their resources to purchase licenses to databases for their patrons.
I don't know. But what is key is that proximity shouldn't matter - at
least not at the county level as it does with PL's.

If you have any ideas, please let me know. Thanks so much, Michele

Here are some things I've thought of/come across :

*The James J. Hill Library, an independent, non-profit library
targeted towards business users, offers yearly subscriptions which
include access to their resources including some databases.

*High Beam eLibrary - this is good, but it only offers access to its
database, unlike SFPL that offers access to many and diverse
databases.

*Join your public university or college library as a "friend" "alum",
whatever. Unfortunately, my experience with this is that you can't
use the databases remotely

*The big 3 (Dialog, Nexis, Factiva) all offer "consumer" type access.

*Some "free" article databases like Find Articles exist on the web.

-- 
Michele McGinnis, MSIS
Research Librarian to Kevin Kelly

149 Amapola Pacifica, CA 94044 650-355-7676 650-359-9701 fax

mm@kk.org www.kk.org


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