Vendor Case Studies

Engineering Village 2 and EBSCOhost allow users to set up their own customizable queries for RSS. This is an awesome feature because it allows researchers to specify exactly what they are looking for and how often they want to run the search (once a day, once a week, bi-weekly, etc.) ProQuest RSS Feeds page did not mention customizable searches. I would assume that they have a similar feature; however, I do not understand why they do not promote it. The most helpful vendor page is Engineering Village 2, which provides detailed information about their RSS feeds, along with screen shots. If I were choosing a vendor based on the information from this week’s cases, I would definitely go with Engineering Village 2.

Working in a special research library, I can see how customizable searches would be very valuable to researchers. It makes me wonder how many people who work in my building know about RSS and the customizable search feature. I think that it should be a library’s goal to promote these tools. A library could easily promote awareness through e-mail messages or library orientations.