Sorry I couldn’t come up with anything more original than David Rothman’s original title, but that pretty much spells it out. What an interesting idea. David posts about a press release in which EBSCO and Newstex announce that EBSCO databases will begin delivering selected blog content alongside standard search results. Sure hope one can easily filter that out! David notes that there are only 10 medical blogs (his subject area); I note there are NO Information Science blogs listed! I wonder how much the bloggers are getting paid, or if they have to be part of some advertising affiliate already. Maybe this is my big chance!
Comments
4 Responses to “EBSCO to deliver blog content”
Paul,
You are cracking me up. Syndication through EBSCO. Quit your library job? Move to an island in the Pacific and blog all day? Let the royalties flow in? This is interesting though and I too wonder about filtering. It will add another topic of explanation to database instruction and evaluation of resources.
Tina
To answer one question, yes, the blogs will come up like any other source type and can be filtered out. The content will be added to appropriate databases and it will be labeled as such and provided in such a way that users can choose to see blog content….not co-mingled with other scholarly content.
We license the content from NewsTex and do not have influence over their process for licensing blogs. If there is no content in a particular area it is either because NewsTex has not been able to find appropriate bloggers on a particular subject or, more likely, because no one has answered the call.
Newstex has an editorial staff that personally reviews blogs and then selects the best blogs for inclusion into the Blogs On Demand feed. Newstex signs distribution agreements with the bloggers. A periodic review occurs to ensure that quality of blogs is maintained.
As someone who reads many blogs, having a way to search blogs from within databases is a great way to leverage new media outlets and add commentary to searching. Going through NewsTex takes care of the licensing issues inherent in making blogs searchable from EBSCOhost. We hope people find it useful.
One note, we have licensed many corporate and business-related blogs so people using our Business Source® databases will see the content first and further blog content will be added to other databases as needed.
The wire feeds that we have also licensed from NewsTex will be added to a broader range of databases so users will likely see that content if they use non-business databases.
Again, the results will come up as a content type and since our administrative module, EBSCOadmin™ is highly customizable, library administrators will be able to determine how the results come up.
Regards,
Kathleen McEvoy
Media Communications Coordinator
EBSCO Publishing
Thanks for the extra information Kathleen. Tina, I had the same thought, but realized if I quit my job, I wouldn’t be blogging about the same thing, so it’d be a nasty Catch-22. 🙁
Hi Paul – I work for Newstex, and I’m working on adding Information Science blogs right now. I’m working as fast as I can, but it can still be a slow process to find good blogs which meet our quality/post-quantity criteria, then to find the contact information of the blogger, then to convince the blogger to sign with us. Just fyi, our contract is non-exclusive, and yes, we pay royalties. If any of your Information Science blogging friends want to drop me a note, I’d be happy to hear from them! My email addy is LGEROW – at – NEWSTEX – dot – COM.