Theme 2: Is There a Future for the Conventional Abstracting and Indexing Services? [Article and Abstract]

Abstract

Given the wide variety of databases (Google Scholar, AGRICOLA, AGRIS, PubMed) now freely available on the Web, as well as the bibliographic information from ScienceDirect, JSTOR and other FirstSearch databases included in the freely available WorldCat.org, and given the general user’s perception that most information is freely available on the Internet, this paper attempts to answer the question whether indexing and abstracting databases by subscription are still relevant in the academic setting.  In so doing, it identifies the purpose of the indexing and abstracting services, discusses the present landscape, and profiles users in terms of their searching habits and their perceptions of the strengths of Google and other search engines. This paper presents findings from a study done at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, identifying undergraduate and graduate biology students’ preferences for information sources both before and after instruction.  This result is compared with those from a course on Fundamentals in Chemistry course to show patterns. By using the CABDirect database and the Web of Knowledge as examples,  this study identifies ways in which database vendors have been responding to the “googlization” challenge and  highlights the necessary enhancements that may be essential for the survival of abstracting and indexing databases in the future.