Database Selection Project

LIS 623
Fall 2016
Jacqueline Eagleson
Michele Locklair
Stefanie Stephens

We were given a budget of $70,000 and the task of selecting appropriate databases from a
predetermined list for use by the students and faculty of Johnson & Wales Universitys Charlotte
campus. We thoughtfully evaluated each database using the criteria (vendor, reviews,
coverage, availability, currency, size, cost, support, and usability) suggested in the textbook
Librarians Guide to Online Searching by Suzanne S. Bell. Johnson & Wales institutional
mission of an exceptional education that inspires professional success and lifelong personal
and intellectual growth and their stated guiding principles that support that mission, were also
considered during the selection process. We were also careful to consider the specific majors
and courses offered at the Charlotte campus in an effort to make sure there were relevant
databases available to support the educational needs of all students. In order to ensure we
covered all of the majors of study with our selections, we sorted all possible databases into
general categories and created a table for reference. In the tables below, the databases we
recommend for purchase are highlighted in green. Our recommendations total $68,526.35.

VENDORS A-Z

DATABASES

ACLS (American
Council of Learned
Societies) from
Univ. of Michigan

ACLS Humanities Ebooks Online

ALA (Amer. Lib.

Assoc.)

RDA Toolkit (to use with Cataloger's

Desktop from Library of Congress). {2
simul users}

APAP (Amer.
Psychiatric Assoc.
Publishing)

PsychiatryOnline with DSM Manual

(Premium edition platform)

Artstor Inc.

ARTstor Digital Library

Bepress

ScholarsArchive @ JWU (Digital

Commons)

Bloomsbury
Publishing

YES/NO

$561.38

NO

$52.33

YES

$1,526.46

NO

$2,775.90

YES

$4,636.00

YES

$614.46

YES

$1,522.66

YES

$2,206.47

YES

Berg Fashion Library (formerly, Oxford

Handbooks Online)

Chronicle of Higher
Education

Chronicle of Higher Education (Chronicle

Campuswide)

CREDO

CREDO Reference (officially called

Academic Core) (ebook collection)

EBSCO

Academic Search Complete

EBSCO

America: History and Life with Full Text

EBSCO

EBSCO

EBSCO

EBSCO

EBSCO

EBSCO

EBSCO

EBSCO

$6,163.69

YES

$3,039.05

YES

$4,950.91

YES

$829.09

YES

$2,475.32

YES

$1,325.15

YES

$177.14

YES

$620.50

YES

$7,106.00

NO

$2,787.30

NO

$1,797.88

YES

$3,005.65

YES

$358.51

YES

$2,213.35

YES

Business Source Complete

Communication & Mass Media Complete

eBook Academic Collection

Education Research Complete

Food Science Source

Hospitality & Tourism Complete

PsycARTICLES

PsycBOOKS (ebooks) (APA books licensed

& distributed by EBSCO)

Gale/Cengage
Learning

Biography In Context

Gale/Cengage
Learning

Business Insights: Global

Gale/Cengage
Learning

Culinary Arts Collection

Gale/Cengage
Learning

GREENR (Global Reference on the

Environment, Energy, and Natural
Resources)

Gale/Cengage
Learning

Health & Wellness Resource Center

Gale/Cengage
Learning

Hospitality, Tourism & Leisure Collection

Gale/Cengage
Learning

Literature Resource Center

Gale/Cengage
Learning

Opposing Viewpoints In Context

Gale/Cengage
Learning

Science In Context

GfK Mediamark
Research

MRI+ Reporter (also called Mediamark

Univ. Reporter) {11-20 simul. users}.

Going Global

Going Global's (1) Country Career Guides

with H1B Visa Plus and (2) USA/Canada
City Career Guides

Imagine Easy

EasyBib School Edition (citation mgmt.

software)

Infobase/Films
Media Group

Films On Demand (FOD) Complete

(streaming video collection)

Infogroup

ReferenceUSA

JSTOR

JSTOR's (Arts & Science IV Collection)

Annual Access Fee (AAF)

LexisNexis from
ProQuest

LexisNexis Academic Universe (some

content is owned by ProQuest)

Morningstar

Morningstar.com {4 simul. users}

Penske Business
Media/Fairchild
Publishing new
owner

$2,042.29

NO

$358.51

YES

$447.99

YES

$1,404.10

YES

$2,294.21

YES

$570.00

YES

$1,235.00

YES

$1,192.50

YES

$8,915.94

YES

$1,311.00

YES

$561.00

YES

$5,099.98

YES

$1,059.82

YES

$1,560.60

YES

Women's Wear Daily (WWD)

ProQuest

ProQuest/Ebrary

Wall Street Journal Current; Eastern

Edition

Advertising Redbooks.com. {10 users}

SBRnet

SBRnet (Sports Business Research

Network)

World Trade Press

YES

$8,095.40

NO

$901.00

YES

$165.75

YES

$974.68

YES

$374.00

YES

Ebrary Academic Complete (ebooks)

Red Books LLC

WGSN

$1,336.20

WGSN (World Global Style Network)

Global Road Warrior

$68,526.35

Majors
Hotel/ Lodging
Management

All Food &

Restaurant
Majors

Liberal
Studies

Sports/
Entertainment/
Events Mgmt

Business
Admin/Studies

SBRnet
Food Science
Source

Morningstar

Hospitality &

Fashion

Corporate
Acct/Financial
Analysis

WWD
Advertising
Redbooks

Business
America:

Tourism Complete

History & Life

Insights: Global

Hospitality,

Biography In
Context

Business Source
Complete

Marketing

WGSN
Culinary Arts
Collection

Communication &
Mass Media
Complete

Tourism & Leisure

ACLS
Humanities
Ebooks Online

Global Road
Warrior

ARTstor

MRI+ Reporter

Wall Street
Journal
ReferenceUSA
Berg
Fashion
Library

Going Global's
Country Career
Guides

Courses, etc.
Psychology

PsychiatryOnline w/DSM

Science/
Sustainability

Literature

Law/Political
Science

All Disciplines

Misc.

GREENR
Literature

JSTOR Arts/Science
IV

Academic Search
Complete

Education Research
Complete

CREDO Reference

ScholarsArchive @ JWU

eBook Academic
Collection

Chronicle of Higher
Education

Resource Center
PsycARTICLES
Health & Wellness
Resource Center

PsycBOOKS

LexisNexis Academic
Universe

Science In Context
Opposing Viewpoints
In Context

Ebrary Academic
Complete

Films On Demand

RDA Toolkit

EasyBib School Edition

Databases Recommended for Purchase

Academic Search Complete: This database includes more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, the
majority of which (more than 7,300) are peer reviewed journals. The wide range of subjects
covered make it a useful tool for all subjects covered at JWU. It is distributed by EBSCO which
provides many tutorials and user guides. Users can perform basic and advanced searches, the
database allows Boolean searching, and it allows users to review their search histories.
Advertising Redbooks.com: This database was included because of its usefulness for
marketing majors. This is something that they will need to be familiar with on the job. It provides
information on media companies, advertising agencies, manufacturers, and more. Even though
only 10 users can access it at a time, it is a worthwhile database to become familiar with. It is
also useful for other business fields.
America: History and Life with Full Text: This database covers United States and Canada
history and culture. It includes journal articles, books, chapters, and reviews; many of which are
available in full text. Users are able to use this to discover primary and secondary resources for
their research. This is obviously an excellent resource for History courses which JWU provides
several of, but students studying any aspect of American life and culture, such as fashion or the
arts, would make use of this database. It provides all of the search features and user assistance
that would be expected from an EBSCO database.
ARTstor Digital Library: This database is a collection of over two million digital images. The
collection is so vast that it can be used by many fields. Art and Fashion courses are first to
come to mind, but there are plenty of arts and humanities on campus that this database would
support. There are many great features for using this database such as limiting your search by
date or geography and browsing by geography or collection. Once an image is located the user
can zoom and rotate. Registered users have even more options such as the ability to download
and create image groups.
Berg Fashion Library: This database provides a wide variety of types of resources including
13,000 images, the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, free lesson plans, eBooks,
and scholarly works. It covers fashion worldwide and includes historical and modern times. This
resource would be useful for the fashion programs on campus. The wide variety of resources
available make ideal for a wide variety of uses.
Biography In Context: This is an invaluable resource of more than 650,000 biographical
entries on people from all over the world, all time periods, and all areas of study. In addition to
the expected journal articles it uses primary sources, magazine and newspaper articles, videos,
podcasts, and images to introduce students to significant people from history to today. We
believe this resource will be beneficial to students in all majors as it provides not only material
for scholarly research but also important background information on leaders in their chosen
fields. In reviews from both academic and public librarians it comes highly recommended for its
ease of use and its appeal to students.

Business Insights: Global is an electronic resource from Gale that caters to students,
entrepreneurs, and professionals in the world of international business. Students will have
access to full-text periodicals, case studies, country profiles, and much more. It also comes with
training webinars to help faculty understand how to use it and a series of videos that explain
how to use each function for students. Business Studies and Business Administration students
will benefit from the purchase of this resource.
Business Source Complete: JWU has several majors and degrees related to business; this
database covers all aspects of business covered by the JWU curriculum including management,
marketing, finances, and accounting. It provides detailed information about more than 1 million
companies. Types of resources included in this database include articles, books, industry
profiles, case studies, reports and reviews. This is an invaluable resource for the business
student.
Chronicle of Higher Education: The Chronicle of Higher Education provides news, information
and job postings related to higher education, it consists of a website and its newspaper, The
Chronicle. This subscription provides unlimited access to searchable editions of every issue of
The Chronicle since 1989 and each new weekly issue as they are published; without a
subscription, users only have access of issues back to 2015. This subscription is useful for
faculty, staff and students and supports JWUs mission of inspiring professional success and
lifelong personal and intellectual growth.
Communication & Mass Media Complete: This database includes 770 journals, 450 offering
full text, related to the fields of communication, mass media and other related fields such as
linguistics, rhetoric, and communication theory. It was the only database in the list to be
considered that covered this topic at such depth. This database would be used by those
studying marketing and other related fields. The database includes a thesaurus to aid in
searching. Another feature it provides is the ability to browse cited references for articles; this
aids in discovering other resources.
CREDO Reference: CREDO Reference provides full text references sources as well as images
and recordings that cover a wide range of areas of study. It has several unique tools like the
mindmap which maps out related terms, the ability to save searches, pronunciation guides and
quotation identifiers. There is great user support provided including tutorial videos for users. It
also offers promotional materials to help the library promote usage of the database.
Culinary Arts Collection: This is a database consisting of articles from over 250 cooking and
nutrition magazines as well as searchable recipes, restaurant reviews, and other industry
information. In addition it also provides access to relevant textbooks from Delmar publishing.
The database includes the use of the InterLink feature which cross searches other Gale
products owned by the library to provide students with related results from other disciplines.
Since Johnson & Wales offers six food related degrees, four of which are specific to the culinary
and/or baking arts, we feel this is a good purchase.
EasyBib School Edition: This resource was chosen because it is not just a citation generator
but a complete resource to track notes and guide research. It uses many different citation styles
including MLA and APA and easily integrates with Google accounts. It also helps students
evaluate a websites integrity. Included is unlimited cloud backup of all citations.

eBook Academic Collection: This subscription includes more than 150,000 eBooks covering a
wide range of subjects and is regularly updated. The books included are from leading academic
publishers. The span of subjects covered would make this useful to all students. This eBook
subscription offered a wider range of subjects than the ACLS Humanities Ebooks Online
database, and a much lower cost than the Ebrary Academic Complete database, both of which
were considered.
Education Research Complete: This is another resource that supports JWUs mission to
promote professional success and intellectual growth. The database provides resources related
to all levels and areas of education and includes a wide variety of types of resources including
education journals, books, and conference papers. Full text is available for many journal articles
as well as some books and other resources. This was designed for use by educators and is a
great resource to aid JWU instructors as well as promote professional development research.
Films on Demand: This database was chosen because it provides a different type of reference
than is typical. Films and documentaries help students see the information they are learning in a
different context. These films are mostly academic and cover the full range of academic fields.
The length of films varies from a few minutes to full length of over two hours.
Food Science Source: This is a database from Ebsco that specializes in all aspects of the food
industry including nutrition, food safety, food and beverage science, and food service. It is
fulltext and includes images, charts, and other types of graphical content. Johnson & Wales
offers six majors focusing on various parts of the food industry. Considering the number of
classes it is pertinent to and its low cost, we believe this database will be a valuable asset to the
school, its students, and faculty.
Global Road Warrior: This database from World Trade Press provides country information on
topics like culture, history, language, and travel requirements. It was included because it is a
good resource for all students but particularly those studying international business and travel
tourism. The cost is so small that it made no sense not to include it. This information is helpful
not only for research and study, but for general knowledge and traveling interests.
Going Global: This database was included because it provides information for students on jobs
and internships in the US, Canada, and around the world. It provides job trends information and
resources on resumes and interviewing. If looking for work in another country it provides advice
on living situations, visas, and money issues. This information is invaluable for students looking
to gain experience and jobs after college.
GREENR: GREENR or Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources
is an electronic resource focused on the study of sustainability and the environment. J&W states
as part of its guiding principles the need to model ethical behavior and local, national and
global citizenship as well as a desire to plan for a sustainable future. In addition, half of the
science classes offered at the Charlotte campus are related to environmental sustainability in
various fields. GREENR is interactive and offers many multimedia resources such as video and
maps. It is highly recommended by library and industry professionals. This database is
constantly updated with new information. For all of these reasons we have decided this
database is a good purchase.

Hospitality & Tourism Complete: This is a full-text database from Ebsco that specializes in all
areas of the hospitality and tourism industry including food service, culinary arts, and hotel
management. In addition to scholarly journal articles it also provides access to industry
magazines, country information, and newspapers. We feel this resource is an excellent way to
support the Hotel & Lodging Management major as well as all Food Management and
Restaurant Management majors. It is also a good resource for students in the Travel Tourism
courses. As stated in a review from the Library Journal this is one of the most comprehensive
databases on the topic.
Hospitality, Tourism & Leisure Collection: This collection from Gale is a database focused on
the hospitality industry from both historical and current perspectives. In addition to over 500
industry journals it also provides access to reference texts from Delmar publishing, the full range
of Fodors travel guides, popular magazines, books, news, and multimedia. Students in most of
the majors offered at J&W will find this resource useful as they work towards their degrees. The
offerings of this resource are similar to those of Hospitality & Tourism Complete but we feel
there is enough difference, and enough added value with the inclusion of Fodors travel guides,
to justify the purchase.
JSTOR (Art & Science IV Collection): This database was chosen because the information it
contains comes from journals that focus on business professions which accounts for several of
the major fields of study at JWU. The collection contains journals in the areas of education, law,
psychology, public policy, and administration all of which are relevant to the students of JWU. It
has a total of 491,000 articles. Users can personalize their searches with MyJSTOR which
allows them to save searches and citations. They can also opt in to receive email alerts when
new content is added to the database that matches their saved search terms.
LexisNexis Academic Universe: This database was included because it provides current
information to students in all areas of study. It mostly contains full text articles from newspapers,
but it does include some journals and scholarly articles. It is easy to use and limit to certain
titles. It also includes company information and legal cases. Video tutorials are provided for
ease of use and specific helps are included for every type of search available. Users can also
search within a certain topic or subject.
Literature Resource Center: This is a fantastic database of full-text literary criticism,
overviews, reviews, biographical information, and full-text poems, short stories, and plays that
spans all time periods and countries. It has a wide range of multimedia resources such as
images, graphs, and audio including full segments from NPR. It also includes access to
Merriam-Websters Encyclopedia of Literature. Materials are added and updated continuously.
There are 15 literature courses taught at the Charlotte campus of J&W University. It is for all of
these reasons that we recommend this database.
Morningstar.com: This database is an invaluable resource for students in finance based
majors. It provides information on many financial topics because it is an investment database for
stocks and mutual funds. Morningstar is known in the industry for valuable and reliable financial
research and tracking. We recommend purchasing it even though it only allows for four
simultaneous users.
Opposing Viewpoints In Context: This is another attractive, engaging, and easy to use
database and resource published by Gale. It is a research tool specifically designed to support

the art of debate, which is a crucial skill for any political science or business student, through its
collection of pro/con essays, reference articles, topic overviews, and profiles of federal agencies
and special interest groups. This resource will be useful to every student as it promotes the
development of critical thinking skills and J&Ws mission to inspire lifelong personal and
intellectual growth. Its multimedia features are especially impressive and include images,
videos, audio clips, infographics, charts and graphs, and interactive maps that show statistical
trends to help students better understand a topic and create stronger arguments. We highly
recommend the purchase of this resource.
RDA Toolkit: RDA (Resource Description and Access) is the new Cataloging Standard and is
used by the Library of Congress and is being implemented by more institutions. Subscription to
this resource provides plenty of assistance to implementing RDA. The RDA Toolkit is available
in several languages, provides support such as an interactive help guide, and provides
bimonthly online workshops. This database is limited to two users at a time, but unlike other
databases in this list, it is intended to be used by library staff, so it will likely not be an issue.
Reference USA: This database focuses on providing business and residential data. Users can
complete company research, search for jobs based on skills, or conduct a market analysis. Over
44 million businesses are included and it is updated monthly including information on companies
that went out of business. It also contains postings for jobs and internships. It is easy and
straightforward to use. Initially it was not included in our recommendations but because we still
had funds available we felt this would be a helpful addition to the databases for the students at
JWU.
SBRnet: We included this database because of the Sports Management major at JWU. It
covers the fans, participants, venues, sponsorships, and sporting goods buyers so that students
have access to all aspects of sports management business. It includes industry reports and
journals. SBRnet allows unlimited simultaneous users.
Science In Context: This is an excellent research resource for full-text articles from scholarly
journals, newspapers, and magazines as well as multimedia including videos, audio, images,
and charts. It covers information from all scientific disciplines such as biology, chemistry, math,
technology, and psychology. The In Context series from Gale is unique in that it not only
provides scholarly research but it also provides the real world context for the material to help
students understand why the information is important to know and how they can expect to use it
outside of a classroom setting. It comes highly recommended by respected publications such as
Booklist who called Science in Context a great resource for any library serving undergraduate
students.
ScholarsArchive @ JWU: This is an open access archive for JWU. Faculty, staff and student
work is collected and available to be freely accessed. It is worth paying to keep this up because
it benefits the university by making work produced by its faculty, staff and students easily
available (it shows what the university community has achieved). It also benefits the authors by
making their work more visible and likely to be cited. It is powered by bepress which makes is
easy to search and has a clean look.
University Reporter (formerly called MRI+ Reporter): This is a resource that allows students
access to consumer data from the Survey of the American Consumer which is one of the most

popular and widely used sources of demographic and consumer data in the field of marketing.
In addition to consumer product usage data and media marketing data, the resource has the
ability to sort data and create reports. It also includes a tutorial to teach both instructors and
students how to create and read the reports. We believe this resource will be indispensable to
students in the marketing bachelors degree program.
Wall Street Journal Current; Eastern Edition: This database was included because of the
business majors at JWU. The Wall Street Journal is the number one business newspaper in the
US, maybe the world. This is a must have for students in any business field to become familiar
with. In addition to current issues, students will have access to full text of the newspaper from
1982 to the present.
WGSN (World Global Style Network): We included this resource because it is useful for the
Fashion and Marketing majors at JWU. It includes trend and color forecasts for at least two
years into the future, images and video from catwalk shows, and product information from 14
different product categories. The database contains 22 million searchable images and built in
tools allow users to clip images from anywhere on the internet and save, organize, and share
them with other users. The price was not prohibitive, which made it a good choice as well.
Womens Wear Daily (WWD): This was chosen because of JWUs Fashion Merchandising
major. Students need to learn to use the information provided in this database to work profitably
in the fashion world. It also is useful for marketing and advertising majors. It allows for unlimited
simultaneous users.

Databases Not Recommended for Purchase

ACLS Humanities Ebooks Online: This subscription provides access to about 5,000 eBooks.
The collection covers the broad spectrum of the Humanities; however it is likely that many of the
resource are available elsewhere. We felt that eBook Academic Collection was a better option
for eBooks because it covered subjects other than only the humanities as well as offered a
larger selection.
Ebrary Academic Complete: This database was not included because the materials provided
were not in the fields of study as most of the majors at JWU. Also because of the cost, it was felt
that it was not the best use of funds. It was felt that the resources provided as ebooks would be
available in print or could be found in other places.
Health & Wellness Resource Center: This is a database from Gale that focuses on
healthrelated issues such as diseases, medical conditions, and medical practices. While it is a
well made and highly regarded resource based on its reviews, we have decided not to
recommend it for purchase at this time. Currently J&W does not offer any majors or minors that
involve the need for medical research to this degree. Any information covered by this source
that is pertinent to individual courses can instead be supported through other databases such as
Science In Context and Food Science Source.
PsycARTICLES: This is a full-text database from the American Psychological Association. We
agree that it is a good resource for psychology students and has many benefits but we do not
recommend it for purchase at this time. Currently the Charlotte campus of J&W offers just five
psychology courses. While it is an important area of study we do not feel the high cost of this
database is justified. We believe the psychology research needs of J&W students will be more
than adequately met by other products that we have recommended for purchase including
Science In Context and Academic Search Complete.
PsycBOOKS: PsycBOOKS, like PsycARTICLES, is a full-text database from the APA. It too is a
great resource for students majoring in psychology but as there is no psychology major offered
at J&W we feel it is an unnecessary expense. Academic Search Complete and Science In
Context both have sufficient scholarly psychology articles to satisfy the needs of the courses
currently offered. For these reasons we do not recommend the purchase of this database at this
time.
PsychiatryOnline with DSM Manual: While this database could be useful for anyone enrolled
in a PSYC course, the JWU Charlotte campus only offers a handful of these. Because JWU
does not offer Psychiatry courses, many of the resources available in this database, such as the
Textbook of Psychopharmacology and Manual of Clinical Psychopharmacology, would get little
use. A major benefit of the database is digital access the current DSM, but JWU already owns a
digital copy.