Comments were mostly positive with praise for searching, coverage, and
frequency of updates. Some concerns about pricing and responsiveness
were raised.
Sample comments:
* We use it and like it but are not sure we can afford to keep it.
I think they would have better law firm market penetration if they
dropped their prices some. It has a huge number of resources that Wexis
does not and sometimes it gets issues faster. We don't bill out the
services which has made it very popular among marketing, corporate
researchers, and staff. I *love* offering an alternative to Wexis.
* I have been using this source for a few months, mostly for
marketing projects. I occasionally find an article or report that I have
not found on Lexis or Westlaw but am not sure that it is worth the cost
of the subscription. I will have to decide whether to renew it by next
Nov. I am curious to see what others say about it.
* Our firm does not subscribe to this database, but we have access
to it via our local public library and I use it at least once a week,
sometimes far more, to find business analysis, company or country
profiles and investment/finance related information. I like it and find
information there that I cannot find elsewhere.
* I use it all the time. I'm able to access it for free through my
local public library Web site. It's probably not a complete version, but
what I can get is really great. Have you tried your library?
* We go fairly often to the Business Source Premier -- it seems to
have a lot available, and gets issues quicker than even Wexis in some
cases. More and more I'm finding current issues are "blocked" in some
of these other databases. Since it's free play around a bit -- it really
is some pretty amazing stuff.
* I loved using it in library school and wish we had access at our
firm. None of our public libraries have it and the only way I can get
access is to go a junior college in person across town. I went to
Illinois and I still use their electronic resources guide to locate
databases with obscure periodicals. I don't have access to their
databases obviously but it saves a lot of time.
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/
* We dumped Ebsco after trying them for approximately 1-2 years.
My predecessor contracted with them but I found the experience grueling
due to a lack of responsiveness by Ebsco. Essentially my team ended up
doing Ebsco's job, there was little if any cost savings (which was the
predicate for doing the deal) and the frustration factor was huge.
Having said all that, I must admit that we dropped Ebsco 8-9 years ago
and things may have changed since then -- e.g., it was my sense back
then that Ebsco had just entered the law firm market and it's back
office didn't really know how to work with us.
* Had it when I worked at an academic institution and really miss
it. The advanced search feature is sophisticated and the
Thesaurus/Indexing is good. It is really nice to have access to a
pre-paid subscription rather than grit-my-teeth per search charges from
Westlaw/Lexis.
Judi Bikel, Senior Librarian| Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld LLP |
2029 Century Park East St. 2400 Los Angeles, CA 90067| direct:
310-229-3825 | direct fax: 310-552-6735| jbikel@akingump.com|
www.akingump.com
Try our new library catalog:
http://maple.cybertoolsforlibraries.com/cgi-bin/CyberHTML?AKINLAHO
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