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Choice
American
Reference Books Annual 2004
NetConnect/Library
Journal,
Winter 2003
Review
from:
American Reference Books Annual 2004
The Business Periodicals
Index, which has been published since 1958, was for many years the main
index to business periodicals. Abstracts and indexing are provided for 527
English-language periodicals and trade journals covering all aspects of
business and industry. Business was one of the first areas in which online
databases for current information were developed. The electronic version
is Wilson Business Full Text. In addition to abstracting and indexing
going back to 1982, the full texts of 260 publications are provided as far
back as 1995. The retrospective file of the index are useful for research
into the development and trends in U.S. business and industry since 1958.
Other major business databases designed for current awareness are not
usually consulted for historical research.
Reviewed by: Choice, 2003
A useful addition to any business reference database
collection, Wilson Business Full Text indexes and abstracts approximately
600 industry and trade journals and related periodicals going back to 1982
and provides full-text coverage of over 350 titles back to 1995. The new
WilsonWeb interface is fairly intuitive and offers powerful features
including relevancy ranking, natural language or Boolean searching
options, and an impressive thesaurus. A browse option lets users peruse
subjects, authors, and other fields alphabetically. Even seasoned
searchers may be unable to use all the advanced options available in this
upgraded version, but the default interface is straightforward enough for
even novice searchers to get good results with a minimum of effort. A
search history link is provided. Like many databases, WilsonWeb help
screens could be more streamlined and easier to navigate, and some
limiting options could be better explained. Citations include links to
multiple subject headings and to SIC codes (where applicable), among other
fields. Many of the full-text articles are available in either HTML or pdf
format. The new WilsonLink feature uses SFX open-URL technology to allow
users to check whether their article is available in full text through
external vendors or elsewhere online. This could be a help or a hindrance,
depending on users and their searching savvy. This feature, as well as
others, can be left on or turned off, depending on customization
preferences.
Summing Up: Highly recommended. Academic and
professional collections.
Review from:
NetConnect/Library
Journal, Winter 2003
Content: Wilson Business Full Text traces its roots back nearly a
half century to Business Periodicals Index. The newly redesigned WilsonWeb
version of the resource provides indexing and abstracting coverage,
beginning in 1982, to some 600 business magazines, trade journals, annual
reports, and scholarly journals, along with such newspapers as The Wall
Street Journal and the business section of The New York Times.
The full range of business activity falls within the scope of Wilson
Business Full Text, and economics and management are a focus as
well.
Full-text coverage—with
access to more than 350 titles—begins in 1995, and the newly implemented
SFX-based WilsonLink feature lets searchers link to
additional full-text titles in any non-Wilson, open-URL-compliant resource
to which the library may subscribe. A Library Holdings feature helps
direct researchers to the library's print collection. A document delivery
feature is also included. Content is updated daily.
Searchability:
This review was conducted on a preview version of the new WilsonWeb
interface. This dramatic upgrade—which introduces an impressive array of
new features, including full-text and natural-language searching along
with a database-specific thesaurus—was released in December 2002.
While WilsonWeb offers a Basic
Search mode and Browsing, on login the product opens in Advanced Search
mode, which is useful for even a modestly sophisticated user. Researchers
can then search one or more databases--if the library has multiple WilsonWeb
subscriptions. By checking the Business Full Text box, several limiting
options are added to the search template and sorting options.
The new WilsonWeb
should brighten the outlook of any professional searcher bemoaning the
dumbing-down of search options. No fewer than 30 operators are available.
These include Concept Operators, which couple the ability to combine
search terms with the ability to turn relevancy on and off; standard
Proximity Operators; Relational Operators, which conduct string searches
as well as date and numerical comparisons; Evidence Operators, which
perform 'intelligent' word searches on homonyms, stems, approximate
matches, and wildcards; and Score Operators, which allow the searcher to
manipulate the factors that calculate the relevancy ranking. The new
Natural Language search feature has its own set of operators, which allow
the searcher to request records similar to ones already found. Finally,
searchers may incorporate Modifiers like case sensitivity and word order
to refine a search strategy further. In other words, if you can't tailor a
search to your precise specifications, it's not Wilson's
fault.
We tested the new thesaurus
with a search for socially responsible investing. Although that
phrase did not turn up as a subject term, the thesaurus was sophisticated
enough to suggest a very useful list of alternative (and valid) subject
terms that did work. Each of these, in turn, opened up an elegant display
of related terms and subject terms with subheadings.
Returning to Advanced Search,
we reformulated the search as a natural-language query (how do returns
of socially responsible mutual funds compare to those without social
screens?) to test the Verity Search Engine. The search produced just
ten hits, with relevancy rankings ranging from 65 percent to 63 percent
(which demonstrates the difference between natural-language searching and
artificial intelligence—the search found what we asked it to find, but
not what we meant to ask it to find). Results, in the new WilsonWeb,
are relevancy ranked by default but may also be sorted by date or custom
sorted.
Even when the database doesn't
deliver full text, the user still has options, thanks to the new WilsonLink
feature. Click on the WebLink icon and the system identifies additional
databases where the article is available in full text, although retrieval
is dependent upon the library's subscribing to that database. This SFX-powered
feature also presents a number of document delivery options, suggests
conducting an ERIC search, and opens up an Internet search engine feature
so that researchers can try their luck there. WilsonLink
is obviously a potentially powerful extension of the basic Wilson
Business Full Text resource. However, identifying online
databases that your users may not access can be a source of frustration to
researchers, and sending students out of a subscription database and into
the web can be a source of frustration to librarians. The feature can be
turned off.
Price: Potential subscribers should consult the company for specific pricing
information, but for comparative purposes, a site license for a library
the size of Union College's (with a campus population of approximately
2300 FTE) would run approximately $3470. The SFX technology is offered at
no extra charge. A free 30-day trial of the database is available.
Who Needs It?: Wilson Business Full Text incorporates an extensive
collection of full-text material with library holdings information—making
the gap between research and results almost disappear. Add in the full
range of SFX-powered connections to external databases, Internet search
engines, and fee-based document delivery services, and Wilson
Business Full Text should be able to satisfy the research needs
of everyone, from the community college business major to the demanding
clients of a corporate library.
—Gail Golderman, Electronic
Media Librarian and Bruce Connolly, Reference Librarian and Bibliographic
Instruction Librarian Schaffer Library, Union College, Schenectady, NY
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