Database Evaluation – Data and Description

9/28/2010

The purpose of this document is to develop criteria for evaluation of electronic resources in the following areas: cost effectiveness, overall use, relevance to the Drake curriculum, and resource quality.

A spreadsheet with the full scores of each database by subject area is available for download: 2010_DB_EvalPublished

2010 Rank DATABASE Cost Per Use Unified Formula for Cost Per Use Number of Uses/Searches Formula for Usage Average Value of “Librarian Selector Evaluations” Avg of scope, selector categories, cost/use, total usage FY11 Cost *FY10 Tech Fund
1 Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) $0.16 0.9984 136,801 136.801 0.9455 34.9305 $14,611.00 32%
2 EBSCO (State Pkg) $0.03 0.9997 107792 107.792 0.9455 27.4428 $2,181.75
3 JSTOR $0.63 0.9937 52,469 52.469 0.5273 13.7065 $32,370.00 * 100%
4 MEDLINE (EBSCO) $0.03 0.9997 40,971 40.971 0.9091 10.7729 $1,267.00
5 PsycINFO (EBSCO) $0.32 0.9968 40,540 40.540 0.9455 10.6673 $8,428.00
6 Scopus $2.29 0.9771 34,206 34.206 0.8727 9.2132 $30,958.72 * 100%
7 Business Source Complete (EBSCO) $0.68 0.9932 23,196 23.196 0.9273 6.4139 $15,031.00 23%
8 PsycARTICLES (EBSCO) $0.37 0.9963 20,581 20.581 0.9455 5.6774 $7,852.00
9 ARTstor $8.80 0.9120 17,105 17.105 0.7167 4.6894 100%
10 Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe $0.72 0.9928 16,236 16.236 0.7120 4.6362 $9,268.00 100%
11 Access Pharmacy $4.03 0.9597 11,401 11.401 0.3909 3.2394 $22,560.00 * 100%
12 MLA International Bibliography & Dir of Per (EBSCO) $1.17 0.9883 10,774 10.774 0.9091 3.1801 $5,965.00
13 Communication & Mass Media (CMMC) (EBSCO) $0.67 0.9933 9,948 9.948 0.9091 3.1188 $3,482.00
14 Biological Abstracts (EBSCO) $1.26 0.9874 10,039 10.039 0.9273 3.0424 $9,870.00
15 Mental Measurements Yearbook & Tests in Print (EBSCO) $0.35 0.9965 8,507 8.507 0.8182 2.6234 $2,181.00 100%
16 America: History & Life (EBSCO) $5.38 0.9462 7,823 7.823 0.8636 2.4707 $9,370.00 *
17 ATLA Religion Database $3.39 0.9661 7,983 7.983 0.9273 2.4703 $3,728.00
18 EconLIT (CSA) $1.22 0.9878 7,557 7.557 0.8909 2.4609 $3,731.00
19 Gender Studies (EBSCO) $2.89 0.9711 7,297 7.297 0.9636 2.3824 $3,638.00
20 Historical Abstracts (EBSCO) $4.20 0.9580 7,529 7.529 0.9636 2.3782 $9,370.00 *
21 International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (EBSCO) $0.72 0.9928 7,339 7.339 0.8318 2.3229 $2,953.00
22 Art Abstracts (EBSCO) $2.06 0.9794 7,255 7.255 0.9182 2.2941 $5,848.00
23 PsycCRITIQUES (EBSCO) $0.22 0.9978 7,111 7.111 0.9273 2.2683 $875.00
24 Ebrary $2.46 0.9754 6,116 6.116 0.7818 2.1811 $11,195.00
25 Wall Street Journal $1.00 0.9900 6,017 6.017 0.6909 2.0607 $3,062.25
26 LGBT Life with Full-Text (EBSCO) $17.05 0.8295 6,151 6.151 0.9455 2.0125 $4,790.00 100%
27 Literary Reference Center (EBSCO) $4.13 0.9587 5,554 5.554 0.9636 1.8753 $5,615.00 100%
28 Ethnic NewsWatch $0.72 0.9928 5,365 5.365 0.9091 1.8752 $3,695.00 * 100%
29 Des Moines Register $0.90 0.9910 5,295 5.295 0.7575 1.8669 $4,175.00
30 Project Muse $2.07 0.9793 4,648 4.648 0.7818 1.8025 $12,330.00 *
31 GenderWatch $0.26 0.9974 4,946 4.946 0.9273 1.7922 $1,195.00 * 100%
32 NY Times (Historical) $1.08 0.9892 5,074 5.074 0.7667 1.7680 $4,100.00 * 100%
33 RISM $0.27 0.9973 5,245 5.245 0.7077 1.7427 $872.00 *
34 Annual Reviews $4.03 0.9597 4,733 4.733 0.6636 1.6806 $3,798.00 100%
35 Chronicle of Higher Education/Chronicle of Philanthropy $0.66 0.9934 5,085 5.085 0.4833 1.6764 $3,700.00 100%
36 EBSCO – EJS $0.24 0.9976 4,436 4.436 0.8727 1.6631 $999.00 *
37 Science Direct $35.39 0.6461 4,089 4.089 0.8692 1.4926 $75,402.63 * 100%
38 Bibliography of Native North Americans (EBSCO) $0.43 0.9957 3,184 3.184 0.9091 1.2772 $1,928.00
39 American Chemical Society $33.53 0.6647 3,311 3.311 0.6455 1.2083 $30,989.00 * 100%
40 Mergent Online $3.73 0.9627 2,916 2.916 0.4000 1.1464 $21,250.00
41 CREDO Reference $3.31 0.9669 1,478 1.478 0.7500 1.0407 $3,374.00
42 CQ Supreme Court Collection $3.79 0.9621 2,041 2.041 0.6727 1.0277 $2,601.00 *
43 CQ Public Affairs Collection $0.69 0.9931 1,821 1.821 0.6909 0.9850 $1,687.00 *
44 MRI (Mediamark Research Inc.) $4.32 0.9568 2,211 2.211 0.4200 0.9737 $1,000.00
45 Contemporary Authors $2.53 0.9747 1,928 1.928 0.8000 0.9319 $3,964.77
46 African American Experience $2.71 0.9729 1,850 1.850 0.6050 0.9257 $540.00
47 Oxford Reference Online $15.36 0.8464 1,712 1.712 0.5833 0.9179 $673.00
48 Sage – Communication $1.51 0.9849 1,620 1.620 0.9091 0.9002 $3,336.39
49 Oxford African American Studies $1.01 0.9899 1,396 1.396 0.7333 0.8928 $1,188.00 100%
50 Birds of North America $3.14 0.9686 2,144 2.144 0.4091 0.8877 $525.00 100%
51 Ulrich’s Online $12.12 0.8788 1,960 1.960 0.5889 0.8692 $3,185.00
52 Sage – Education $1.73 0.9827 1,396 1.396 0.9091 0.8649 $3,659.27
53 CQ Historical Documents $0.06 0.9994 1,640 1.640 0.6909 0.8646 $147.00 *
54 Country Watch $1.19 0.9881 1,530 1.530 0.4909 0.8583 $1,716.00 *
55 Music Index $1.05 0.9895 1,776 1.776 0.6364 0.8557 $3,925.71 *
56 Britannica Online – Ency. $4.04 0.9596 1,536 1.536 0.5818 0.8474 $2,099.00 *
57 CQ Voting & Elections $1.53 0.9847 1,292 1.292 0.6727 0.8461 $2,601.00 *
58 CQ Researcher $0.53 0.9947 1,035 1.035 0.7818 0.8449 $907.00 * 100%
59 National Journal Groups Policy Central $44.56 0.5544 1,857 1.857 0.5000 0.8339 $2,999.09 *
60 Oxford English Dictionary $1.84 0.9816 1,586 1.586 0.5556 0.8198 $1,426.00
61 DynaMed $0.78 0.9922 1,430 1.430 0.4769 0.7718 $4,630.00
62 Gale Virtual Reference $1.14 0.9886 615 0.615 0.7333 0.7445 $300.00 *
63 Oxford Music Online (previously Grove Music Online) $2.36 0.9764 1,322 1.322 0.6000 0.7299 $2,279.00
64 Sociological Abstracts $6.40 0.9360 739 0.739 0.9455 0.7049 $3,980.00 100%
65 Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) $10.42 0.8958 884 0.884 0.5800 0.6960 $1,025.00 *
66 Oxford Art Online (previously Grove Art Online) $2.14 0.9786 1,181 1.181 0.6000 0.6959 $2,279.00 100%
67 NAXOS Jazz $16.32 0.8368 1,476 1.476 0.4167 0.6926 $300.00 *
68 Wiley Online $2.21 0.9779 605 0.605 0.7800 0.6872 $2,239.18 *
69 Access Science $0.80 0.9920 790 0.790 0.6727 0.6692 $1,790.00
70 LexisNexis (ASL, SRI, IIS, Tables Online, DataSets) NA NA NA NA 0.7333 0.6117 $6,527.19
71 Global Issues in Context NA NA NA NA 0.7692 0.6101 $1,976.00
72 Books In Print $2.50 0.9750 517 0.517 0.7000 0.6013 $2,303.92
73 Philosopher’s Index $5.24 0.9476 536 0.536 0.9091 0.5994 $1,625.00
74 CQ Weekly $0.95 0.9905 294 0.294 0.6727 0.5981 $1,397.00
75 Latino American Experience $6.22 0.9378 510 0.510 0.6833 0.5963 $540.00
76 Nature Online $10.70 0.8930 484 0.484 0.6462 0.5663 $17,645.06 * 100%
77 Chicago Tribune, Historical $24.69 0.7531 733 0.733 0.7500 0.5618 $2,505.00 *
78 GREENR NA NA NA NA 0.7538 0.5604 $2,356.00
79 Natural Standard $10.38 0.8962 828 0.828 0.3636 0.5555 $3,038.49 100%
80 Science Online $26.56 0.7344 396 0.396 0.6750 0.5119 $5,645.00 *
81 Institute of Physics (IOP) $13.43 0.8657 323 0.323 0.7455 0.4885 $22,407.00 * 100%
82 Medicines Complete $0.10 0.9990 348 0.348 0.4909 0.4815 $8,389.00 *
83 SciFinder Scholar $71.16 0.2884 700 0.700 0.7556 0.4805 $4,440.00 *
84 Emerald Intelligence Fulltext $13.85 0.8615 150 0.150 0.7818 0.4603 $4,441.00 *
85 American History in Video $15.46 0.8454 353 0.353 0.5846 0.4560 $986.00
86 Sage Psychological Sciences Collection $4.50 0.9550 59 0.059 0.7462 0.4470 $3,188.00 *
87 Cambridge Histories Online $7.38 0.9262 179 0.179 0.6385 0.4387 $800.00 *
88 FAITS NA NA NA NA 0.4818 0.4014 $999.00
89 NAXOS Music $0.16 0.9984 84 0.084 0.4333 0.3864 $700.00 *
90 USP-NF Online NA NA NA NA 0.6200 0.3740 $1,055.00
91 Britannica Online – Original Sources $10.90 0.8910 15 0.015 0.5333 0.3723 $595.00 *
92 JAMA/Archives of Internal Medicine $50.99 0.4901 53 0.053 0.6692 0.3571 $3,250.00 100%
93 NAXOS Spoken Word $9.96 0.9004 48 0.048 0.4167 0.3560 $200.00 *
94 Black Studies Center $82.41 0.1759 297 0.297 0.6769 0.3532 $4,627.00 *
95 ConsumerLab $16.90 0.8310 34 0.034 0.3636 0.3392 $505.05 *
96 Oxford Islamic Studies Online $39.57 0.6043 163 0.163 0.3769 0.2923 $814.00
97 Gale Directory Library $74.40 0.2560 198 0.198 0.6909 0.2912 $2,536.50
98 Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower $41.67 0.5833 2 0.002 0.3250 0.2378 $212.50
99 E-Duke Scholarly Collection $147.12 -0.4712 14 0.014 0.8000 0.1330 $2,944.02
$563,658.49

Description of Unified Formula for Cost Per Use:

In order to normalize (get as close to numbers between “0” and “1” as possible) the data AND directly reflect the financial implications of “cost-per-use,” the Cost Per Use (CPU) column  is divided by 100, and then subtracted from 1.00.  For example, a database with an $18 CPU is divided by 100 (result=.18) and then subtracted from 1.0 (.82), while a database with a $2 CPU is divided by 100 (.02) and then subtracted from 1.00 (.98)  The result is that data is not only normalized, but that the actual (as opposed to relative) cost per use is directly reflected in the output of this formula.

Description of Formula for Usage:

This column is arrived at simply:  Take the number of searches (in this case, for the most recent year) and divide by 1000.  So, a database gets 39.5 “points” for 39,500 uses, while a database would get .75 of a point for 750 uses.

Description of uses/searches:

Total number of searches performed by users between June 2009 – May 2010 (FY10). If a count of searches is not available, number of sessions (sign-ons) is used.

Description of cost per use:

Subscription price or maintenance fee divided by total number of searches/sessions.