BadgerLink Database Changes

The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and the Department of Administration (DOA) have announced upcoming changes in the databases available through BadgerLink. These changes are scheduled to take place on or around July 1.

What does this mean for users?

The big changes are that ProQuest will no longer be available and that EBSCO content is being expanded to nearly double what is currently available. More information about the changes and the EBSCO content is available here.

SCLS "by subject" and "by name" database pages will be updated on July 1 to reflect these changes. If you have a link on your website specifically for ProQuest, you should plan on removing it on or after July 1.

Comments

[Tim]

Unfortunately, this change has made BadgerLink significantly worse than it used to be. EBSCO's newspaper holdings are fewer, and the articles they include are seemingly random. I've clicked on newspapers where exactly three articles from that issue can be found!

Also, some of the newspapers that were included in ProQuest are missing from EBSCO - the Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate, to name one. And though it has the Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal, EBSCO's version is missing ALL the obituaries!

It seems that more than 90 percent of the newspapers included in EBSCO are missing the obituaries. What gives?

EBSCO is basically useless for the kind of genealogical research I like to do.

[Kerri]

Thanks for the feedback, Tim. I'll pass it along to the staff at BadgerLink who made the selections.

[David]

BadgerLink Community,

It is good to hear comments from a number of users’ point of view.

The BadgerLink program is intended to provide a core set of quality information resources to all residents, schools, organizations, libraries, and businesses, across a broad spectrum of subjects and topics. Many libraries and organizations supplement these resources to meet the needs of its local constituents as local budgets and resources permit.

The Department of Administration and the Department of Public Instruction issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for Wisconsin BadgerLink Web Access to Full Text Database Systems and Content on July 15, 2008. As a result of the RFP process, the Department of Public Instruction negotiated contracts with Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., EBSCO, Gale/Cengage Learning, Heritage Microfilm, Inc., and Teachingbooks.net, LLP. The new contracts began on July 1st 2009 (the ProQuest contract expired at this time as well).

EBSCO provided an expanded package of databases which nearly doubles the content previously available in BadgerLink. This content includes a substantial number of newspapers as part of EBSCO’s Newspaper Source Plus, which contains 1731 titles (mix of regional, national, and international newspapers as well as some news wires and broadcast transcripts). Of that number, 1301 are cover to cover titles (includes content like obituaries), 313 include all staff articles, and 113 titles are selective articles only.

If anyone would like a detailed title list for Newspaper Source Plus OR any of the EBSCO products OR has other questions about BadgerLink, please feel free to contact BadgerLink Help at [email protected]

Thank you,
David Sleasman
Reference and Loan Library
WI Dept. of Public Instruction