Issue 15
Term 4 1995
What's New
While neither of these two CD-ROMs: Issues in the news and World magazine bank, are new products to some, I saw them both for the first time at the Trade Exhibition (ASLA XIV) in Freemantle and immediately saw their educational potential.
Issues in the news
Issues was originally produced for VCE students who are required to follow a social issue in the press over a period of time. Published by The Age it contains over 1500 news and feature stories from 1995, divided into 60 topics or issues. It becomes a national educational tool because many of these issues are research topics for most Australian students! Topics include republicanism, privatisation, euthanasia, censorship, pollution, guns, Bosnia, casinos, aborigines, pay TV ....... Search strategies' are easy to follow with on-screen instructions, and print out facilities available.
While The Age is available in full text on CD-ROM and updated quarterly, its price has to be justified in this time of budget constraints. With its specific content Issues provides much of what is required by our clients at a far more reasonable price.
School price: $85.00
Contact: Maureen Gustus
Ph: 03 96012454
Fax: 03 96012219
World magazine bank
EBSCO, renowned within academic libraries for its databases of citations/abstracts, has devised a product which combines this with a full text display of specific articles. World magazine bank was designed as a collection of serials for libraries and schools that did not want an overwhelming American bias. Currently it contains 431 titles with around 120 Australian publications and provides the full text for 164. On-screen instructions are simple to follow and the search screen allows for three combinations and a 'but not'. Putting it to the test, I searched for: ebola virus -which resulted in 69 hits of which 42 contained full text! Information overload for the Year 12 Biology student.. ... It is a great way to extend the serials collection without the worry of shelving space ' and sorting time. While I don't believe it will replace many standing serial subscriptions, it will certainly reduce the number of inter-library loan requests. As an indication, out of the 164 full text journals The Southport School subscribes to 13 of them. As the Time magazine is one, it will mean eliminating the purchase of the annual Time Almanac on CD-ROM!
The data is spread over two disks and there is no extra charge for networking. It can be purchased as a single annual disk ($495), quarterly for $995 or Academic Year (10 updates)' for $1,295.
Contact: EBSCO Publishing
Ph: 03 95968118
Fax: 03 95968109
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