Choosing Databases for Sociology Studies: SocINDEX or Sociological Abstracts?

摘要

When EBSCO announced its new database, SocINDEX, in April 2005, it complicated librarians' lives by adding a competitor to CSA's Sociological Abstracts, a long-standing favorite in university libraries. EBSCO's new product presented librarians with a selection decision between two databases from very-well-known companies. As usual, deciding which to offer revolves around the issues of quality and quantity. The Sociological Abstracts' database, established in 1952, abstracts and indexes over 1,800-plus journals, books, dissertations, and conference papers in sociology and related disciplines, as stated on the product Web site [www.csa.com/factsheets/ socioabs-set-cphp]. With its history of selection, tabbed interface (on CSA's Illumina platform), and easily searched thesaurus, many librarians favor the search quality within this product and have opted to stick with the CSA product.