Alumni access to databases?
From:"Linda A. Brown" <lbrown_at_bgsu.edu>
**The message below is forwarded on behalf of OhioLINK colleague, Brian Gray at Case
Western Reserve Univ.
Linda A. Brown, Chair, Collections & Technical Services Department
Associate Professor
University Libraries
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43402
==5==
From: Brian C. Gray
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 8:58 AM
To: phil.flynn_at_wright.edu; Computer Science and Engineering List
Subject: Re: [Compengr] Alumni Database access
We do offer it [alumni access to databases] and our research show that the offering is far
from "most" other universities. The costs and licensing are very restrictive, especially
in today's economic climate. In addition, it can be very tricky depending how your
university does or does not maintain alumni records and electronic access controls. We
partnered with our alumni association to manage payments, promotion, passwords, and had to
set up a separate access method than our traditional IP/VPN that current students and
employees use.
Here is an article that surveyed the landscape in 2006 by my boss Catherine Wells:
http://tinyurl.com/4pvm4qw
At that time only 18 schools of 102 (used one of the rankings of top schools) that
participated in online discussion or that information could be found on their website
provided alumni access. Even of that 18 some only provided access to alumni of specific
disciplines.
Catherine monitors the landscape fairly close. During this past semester, she determined
38 ARLs participated in an online offering to alumni.
Our alumni services:
http://library.case.edu/ksl/alumni/
Specifically the online services which is $95 per year to alumni:
http://library.case.edu/ksl/services/alumni/choice.html
Some of the databases licensed for alumni are reduced full-text versions of what they had
as access to as students. For examples, EBSCO offer "alumni" versions of academic and
business that have less full-text than the versions OhioLINK has.
The other challenge is convincing information producers and the alumni that want it that
we can offer but for "personal use". Too many feel or think it can serve as a product for
the work/business adventures.
We also found that many of the database producers wanted to avoid the alumni market, never
considered it, or did not know how to proceed. Several of our current offerings we were
the first, which is also true of some we tried but dropped. For example, we offered a
small sampling of Knovel books for one year as a pilot. EBSCO and ProQuest are the easiest
to work with as they have established models in place.
Hope this helps.
Brian C. Gray, MLIS
Head of Reference
Librarian - Engineering, Math, & Statistics
Email: brian.c.gray_at_case.edu
Blog: http://blog.case.edu/bcg8/
Kelvin Smith Library 201-L
Case Western Reserve University
Kelvin Smith Library
11055 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7151
Phone: (216) 368-8685
Fax: (216) 368-3669
Received on Sat Jan 29 2011 - 03:12:21 EST