Emily Tuttle - English 190 - Section 1

Hello All,


Your entire class posed only two questions in the one-minute papers you filled out at the conclusion of your class session at Pius Library. Generally, you all seemed very confident of your abilities to use the library's resources and find your way around. Hopefully that's making the end-of-semester crunch a little easier on you. Now...those questions...


What happened to the newspapers?
I'm guessing this refers to the elimination of the freestanding newspaper shelves in the middle of the Current Periodicals section on Level 2. Indeed, those shelves have been removed to allow for some space consolidation; this helped open up the adjacent areas a bit more. The newspapers are still up there -- only now they're arranged by call number and they're on the shelves alongside the periodicals. Check the SLU Libraries Catalog for the newspapers' call numbers.


What is the difference between the setup of EBSCOhost and the other databases?
I'll start by clarifying that EBSCOhost isn't a database -- it's a search product (or platform or interface) developed by the company named EBSCO. And that company offers subscriptions to about 200 different databases -- at last count, the SLU Libraries subscribe to about 36 of them in many subject areas; the interdisciplinary Academic Search Premier is just one of them. In addition to EBSCOhost databases, the SLU Libraries subscribe to databases from about 13 other companies (some names with which you may be familiar are Ovid, ProQuest, and LexisNexis). Each of these companies offers its own product/platform/interface that, in its estimation based upon lots and lots of research, is the most suitable and user-friendly for the databases it offers. That's why EBSCOhost databases look different and have mechanics (like how to search and print) that differ from those of Ovid -- and why Ovid is different from ProQuest, etc. It's a little intimidating and it can be a pain to learn to use different interfaces. But keep in mind that they all pretty much do the same thing conceptually. So, for example, if you know (1) the difference between keyword and subject searching, and that subject databses often have their own official subject vocabularies, and (2) how to search using OR and AND, you should be able to navigate most databases at a basic level--even if you've never used them before and their "setup" differs from those you search often. If it's any consolation, gaining familiarity with so many different products can be a bit of a headache for librarians, too! :-)


If you have any questions as you work on wrapping up your semester assignments, don't hesitate to ask me or one of my colleagues at the reference desk for help. Good luck with finals and enjoy the holidays! -- Dr. Joseph