Fewer Full Text in Ebsco/Proquest

The following Q&A appeared on today's Buslibs-l:

> > Good morning, > > I'd be interested in finding out if searchers are finding fewer and fewer > fulltext business trade journals in popular online publication databases, from > vendors like Gale and ProQuest. Doing searches on files like 13 (BAMP),15 > (ABI/INFORM),16 (PROMT) and 148 (TRADE & INDUSTRY) on Dialog seem to no longer turn > up as many high profile business trade journals as in the recent past. > > Have others had this or related experiences? > > Thanks for any feedback, > > Bob Berkman, editor > The Information Advisor > www.informationadvisor.com > > = - = -
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Right on, Bob. Here are a couple of excerpts from my Oct 04 column in
Business Information Alert.
...Now journal and newspaper publishers are changing the locks on the
online information storehouses, transferring their special features to
separate, paid databases. ÜSuperBrandsß (Brandweek) and ÜLeading
National Advertisersß (Advertising Age) are among the most prominent
journal features that are turning us back to the printed page.

No one can dispute the reference value of the well-researched rankings
and analyses that these trade journals provide, but managing a disparate
collection of one-trick ponies is an added burden for libraries. Some
publishers have not only introduced a premium charge for special reports,
but have removed their archives (leaving a gap if the print subscription
was discontinued) to yet another fee based service. Pay for the current
edition. Pay more for the archives. Pay still more for the special
reports or supplements. How many more ways can you slice the sausage?

....Think you¬re safe if you¬re an EBSCO database customer? Dream on.
These special features are generally no longer provided to aggregate
vendors, a blow to Proquest, EBSCO and other vendors whose customers may
now question the value of products with diminishing content. I suppose
we¬ll eventually see a database that rounds up all these feral fee
seekers.

Terese M. Terry. Lippincott Library. Wharton School. U of PA. USA
terryt@wharton.upenn.edu www.library.upenn.edu/lippincott
Columnist, Business Information Alert.