Monthly Archives: September 2023

Reviews

Database Review: EBSCOhost

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Overview:

EBSCOhost is a database that provides a wide range of journal articles, e-books, and other sources for research. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, “EBSCO’s online databases provide access to thousands of journals and reference sources in a wide variety of subjects. EBSCO’s leading online full-text databases offer access to articles from peer-reviewed journals published by many other the world’s most prestigious publishers.” The database covers a vast majority of topics such as Art and Architecture and Race Relations Abstracts to provide researchers narrow topics and sources. EBSCO strives to provide “libraries, health care and medical institutions, corporations and government agencies with access to content and resources to serve information and workflow needs of their users and organizations.” (EBSCO 2023)

Facts:

Date Range: Date range varies depending on the topic (for example, I put in “Food Processor” in the search which mean the date range is limited between 1976-2023, however if you search another topic like the “Industrial Revolution” the date range changes to between 1896-2023)

Publisher: EBSCO Industries, Inc.

Publisher About Page: https://www.ebsco.com/about#:~:text=An%20industry%20leader,been%20in%20business%20since%201944.

Object Type: Academic Journals, Trade Publications, Periodicals, Newspapers, Biographies, Blog Entries, Books, Conferences Papers, Country Reports Databases, Educational Reports, Encyclopedias, Government Documents, Grey Literature, Law, Primary Source Documents, Reports, Reviews Speeches, Working Papers

Exportable Image: Yes

Facsimile image: No

Full text searchable: Yes

Titles list links: https://www.ebsco.com/title-lists

History/Provenance: EBSCO started out as a small “family-owned” company in the United States in 1944. It has since grown to have several offices around the world to become the one of the “Largest privately held” companies in the country. EBSCO has for more than 70 years, been “the leading provider of research databases, e-journal and e-package subscription management, book collection development and acquisition management, and a major provider of library technology, e-books and clinical decision solutions” for institutions around the world (EBSCO).

Reviews

The collections offered by EBSCO eBooks is substantial, with various purchase options and models that suit any library wanting to maintain a digital collection. EBSCO eBooks come with great tools like ECM and GOBI, which are great for building an e-book collection from scratch or having in the back pocket to purchase those obscure titles requested by patrons. The online interface has good navigation features but downloading e-books can be frustrating. It is also time-consuming to download more software to view the e-book offline. An improvement would be having all the e-books, not just the DRM-free titles, work with other e-book readers already installed on mobile devices and computers. Overall, this is an ideal resource for all types of libraries, not just health sciences and hospital libraries. — Pamela Herring Journal Of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries

eBooks on EBSCOhost offers a wealth of full text content from which libraries may choose and offers a flexible interface that may be tailored to meet the subscribing institution’s preferences. With its diverse content, no platform fees, and a variety of access models, this e-book platform is a boon for a wide variety of institutions and budgets. — Kimberly Mitchell Journal Of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries

* The only reviews that could be found were about the eBooks on the EBSCOhost site

Access: The database requires a college or institutional login to access the site

Info from Publisher: https://www.ebsco.com/publishers-partnerships

Other Info: EBSCO has an Open Access policy which can be found here. The company provides researchers and students “trustworthy,” open access, peer-reviewed journals for their use.

Citing: EBSCOhost provides instructions for all the different styles of citation. They note that students should “consult their institution’s reference librarian for more clarification” and to ask their professors which style they would prefer they would use. https://support-ebsco-com.mutex.gmu.edu/help/?int=ehost&lang=en&feature_id=Sty&TOC_ID=Always&SI=0&BU=0&GU=1&PS=0&ver=&dbs=a9h

Guides

A Guide to Digitization

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Creating digital images can capture specific aspects of a certain item. It can capture the color and some of the size and texture. However, there are certain aspects ignored in digital images. Digital images need help capturing the sound and all the different sides of an item, making it hard for a researcher to get the true nature of it. Rather than digital images, video would be a better alternative for a historical researcher. Not only can videos capture the same aspects that digital images can and do it better, but they can also depict the sound and all the sides of the item. Videos can give researchers more material to work with.

Missing information in digital images can lead to misinterpretations from the viewer. The Conway article states, “Representation is an intentional relationship between the maker and the viewer, fraught with the potential for communication problems ranging from misinterpretation and misunderstanding to falsehood and forgery.” (3) These misinterpretations can lead to bad practices as historians, impacting how they understand and use these items. As in the paragraph before, some might choose a particular digital medium over another, use multiple mediums, or even use different angles of photos; as Conway states, “Building collections of photographs through digitization is fundamentally a process of representation, far more interesting and complex than merely copying them to another medium.” (3) These different ways that historians can avoid misinterpretations can lead to the different uses in the field as Melissa Terras states, “The opportunities to provide and enhance resources ‘for learning, teaching, research, scholarship, documentation, and public accountability’ are immense.” (2)

Conway, Paul. “Building Meaning in Digitized Photographs.” Journal of the Chicago Colloquium of Digital Humanities and Computer Science 1, no. 1 (2009): 1-18.

Terras, Melissa. “Digitisation and Digital Resources in the Humanities.” In Digital Humanities in Practice, edited by Claire Warwick, Melissa Terras, and Julianne Nyhan, 1-22. Facet Publishing, 2012.

Creative Commons Sources

The Public Domain Review

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The Public Domain Review is a website containing different digital material in the public domain and in Creative Commons. On the website, users can find images, books, and films from around the world that have since entered the public domain. Each image, book, and film briefly describes the material and, sometimes, the artist. The website, on their rights page (found here), details the labeling system of their public domain material. There are different labels for the public domain depending on where it is, life plus how many years, and if the government is involved. They also go into the attribution and Share-Alike rules according to Creative Commons.

Creative Commons Sources

Pexels

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Pexels is an excellent website for free-to-use photos. On the website, anyone can find different kinds of photos for what they need. They include different categories like food, underwater, or backgrounds, so that anyone can find a photo of anything. Regarding the license, which can be found here and here, Pexels says that just about every photo is free to use and in the Public Domain. People can modify the photos, and attribution is not required. However, some of the photos fall under the Creative Commons license, and the use of those photos may still need permission from a third party.  

Public Domain Sources

National Gallery of Art

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The National Gallery of Art, located in Washington, D.C., is an excellent place for people to view different artwork. The museum contains artwork mostly from Western artists spanning different eras. The museum also provides resources for teachers to help plan lessons and field trips. Regarding the copyright, which you can find here, the museum says it has an Open Access policy. They state, “Users may download and reproduce . . . any digital image of a work in our collection that we believe is in the public domain.” Anyone can find this next to the artwork with the sentence, “This image is in the public domain.” It is also under the artwork with the Creative Commons Public Domain symbol.

Public Domain Sources

Perlinger Archives

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The Perlinger Archives, located on the Internet Archive on archive.org, and founded by Rick Prelinger, contains many different types of films in topics ranging from advertising, educational, and even wartime films. According to the website, their goal is “to collect preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven’t been collected elsewhere.” Regarding the copyright, which you can find here, the website makes a point to ensure the audience understands what can be copied or downloaded. The website tells the audience that, there is Public Domain material within the collection with a Creative Commons license for it.

Creative Commons Sources

NASA Commons Site on Flickr

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The NASA Commons Site is a webpage created on Flickr’s image-sharing site to share “photographs, historic film and video” with a larger audience. As the website states, these materials come from the NASA archives and allow the “audience to help tell the story of these photos by adding tags, or key words, to the images to identify objects and people.” Since November 2009, they have gained a following of over twenty-six thousand people and have amassed over two hundred and fifty-one million views. According to the terms on Flickr, which you can find here, there are restrictions on what you can and cannot do to images posted on the website. This would mean that the photos on the NASA Commons Site would not fall under the Public Domain but are still under Creative Commons.

Public Domain Sources

J Paul Getty Museum

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The J. Paul Getty is a museum based in Los Angeles, California. They focus on conserving the arts for the public. The museum mostly has European artwork, but it varies in different styles of artwork. They include different kinds of sculptures, ornate manuscripts, photographs, and paintings, all from different eras in European history. The museum does include a rights statement. You can find the rights statement here. The museum states that they participate in an Open Content Program with their Public Domain artwork, meaning people do not need permission to download pictures of artwork that clearly state it is in the Public Domain.