Internet Resources: September 2019 Edition

Selected reviews of digital reference resources from the September issue of Choice.

Posted on September 5, 2019 in Internet Resources

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Ancestry.com. $19.99 per month.
Ancestry.com

“Ancestry.com is a popular resource for online genealogy and family history research, incorporating access to a variety of state, federal, and international records, the creation of family trees, and genealogy DNA test results,” wrote Tracey Hughes for ccAdvisor. The website has an aesthetically pleasing interface, and the content can be searched broadly. The intended audience is primarily professional and amateur genealogists. The site contains an impressive variety of content, organized in specific collection categories including, but not limited to, Birth, Marriage & Death; Census & Voter Lists; Newspapers & Publications; Probates, Land, Tax & Criminal; Family Trees; and Stories, Memories & Histories. “The variety of resources may make the site helpful to a limited extent for history researchers,” Hughes wrote, “keeping in mind that other specialized primary sources may reside in collections and private papers that are not accessible using Ancestry.” Individuals can also purchase a DNA genealogy test. Once the kit is processed, the results are uploaded to the subscriber’s account, and connections can be made with other potential genetic relatives. The ability to create a tree is not available to users as part of an institutional subscription; such users can still search for records, and can either save them directly to the computer, or can send an email with a link to view the record. DNA kit purchases and processing are also not available for institutional subscriptions. “Searches within the resource tend to yield results that are not always relevant, in comparison to the keywords that were used,” Hughes wrote. To read the complete review, go to ccadvisor.org. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels —J. Stoehr, CHOICE

Age of Exploration. Contact publisher for pricing.
exploration.amdigital.co.uk

Age of Exploration, from publisher Adam Matthews, is a rich, single-purchase, primary-source resource focusing on Western European exploration c.1420–1920,” wrote Jennifer S. Beach for ccAdvisor. The site focuses on maritime exploration only, and resources originate in libraries, archives, and the Explorers Club. The resource includes a robust media gallery, including high-resolution images, historic video and audio files, manuscripts, journals, personal correspondence, and maps. With its specialized scope and deep collection of primary-source materials, this resource is best suited to upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, and academic professionals. “Its narrow focus does limit its usability to those who primarily study maritime exploration, but those who do use Age of Exploration will delight in the hours of research they can devote to their areas of interest,” Beach wrote. The user interface is intuitive enough that users can dive in immediately, but the inclusion of the detailed Help section dramatically adds to the user experience. The navigation is user-friendly. Advancing page-by-page within a source is easy and quick. The metadata and bibliographic data are highly useful. As a primary-source resource, many items included in the collection are handwritten, and often in languages other than English. “Unfortunately for the novice, transcripts and translations are not included,” Beach wrote. This is the norm for users who have experience deciphering historical documents, but could be problematic with texts done in artistic styles, poor quality handwriting, or faded scripts. “Then again, this resource could be excellent practice for burgeoning or practicing historians,” Beach wrote. To read the complete review, go to ccadvisor.org. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. —J. Stoehr, CHOICE

Cypress Resume. Contact publisher for pricing.
cypressresume.com

“Cypress Resume is an annual subscription resume writing software product by Cypress Information Services,” wrote Dawn Behrend for ccAdvisor.org. It creates resumes, cover letters, and reference sheets with no additional writing skills required by the user beyond entering their basic information. Targeted users include K-12 schools, public libraries, higher education, and any institution assisting job seekers. Cypress Resume is competitive with Ferguson’s Career Guidance Center (CH, Jun’04, 41-5617) and Testing and Education Resource Center (TERC) by Gale in providing resume and cover letter writing assistance, but “suffers in comparison in its lack of ease of publication to the web and the absence of a job search engine,” Behrend wrote. While a suitable product for a range of industries and job levels, the product may be less attractive to those who seek to create a resume with the individual feel and visual finesse to stand out as an applicant for more highly competitive positions. With its ease of use, range of job coverage, and competitive pricing, Cypress Resume is recommended for purchase by public, secondary school, and undergraduate academic libraries as a starting point for those entering or reentering the job market. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through faculty. —J. Stoehr, CHOICE

J. Walter Thompson: Advertising America. Contact publisher for pricing.
jwtadvertisingamerica.amdigital.co.uk

“J. Walter Thompson: Advertising in America is an extensive digital archive of the J. Walter Thompson Company,” wrote Tracy A. Salvage for ccAdvisor. Primary sources encompass such items as client records, brand reports, staff meeting minutes, ad imagery, and documentation on marketing ideas and processes. These span the course of 150 years. Emanating from Duke University collections, the depth and breadth of this source material provide unparalleled access to the advertising industry and corporate inner workings. These unique records inform social and economic history, consumer marketing, business practices, and the human psyche. “A trial subscription to the site yielded what appeared to be comprehensive coverage of the company’s clients, brands, advertisements, and New York and Chicago office operations,” Salvage wrote. The information was conveyed in the form of business and marketing reports, memoranda, newsletters, advertising art and copy, staff meeting minutes, etc. “While the breadth and depth of content is unparalleled,” Salvage said, “this reviewer did not find the user interface easily searchable by undergraduate students completing typical assignments. The variety of primary source materials presented in the database on such leading companies as Kraft, Scott Paper, the US Marine Corps, etc., would be pertinent to MB and other graduate programs that focus on case studies. In addition, faculty and researchers in the fields of business, marketing, and social and economic history would undoubtedly find the site an essential electronic resource.” To read the complete review, go to ccadvisor.org. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students through professionals. —J. Stoehr, CHOICE

MLA International Bibliography with Full Text. Modern Language Association of America Contact publisher for pricing.
ebsco.com/products/research-databases/mla-international-bibliography-full-text

“The Modern Language Association International Bibliography (MLAIB) is widely adopted in language, literature, dramatic arts, and related areas of study at higher education institutions,” wrote Kyle D. Winward for ccAdvisor. It was first made available in electronic form in 2001 and is produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA). MLAIB indexes multiple-language print and online sources, including journal articles, books, and websites in the areas of “literary studies, film and multimedia studies, folklore, modern languages, linguistics” and the history of print and printing. Since 2003, MLAIB has included indexing from JSTOR’s language and literature periodical collections, expanding the indexing coverage start date from 1926 to 1887. ProQuest’s Dissertations and Theses database records are also indexed in MLAIB (Using the MLAIB). The intended audience for this database is undergraduate and graduate students and faculty. There has also been some adoption of MLAIB in secondary schools. Included with subscriptions are the MLA Thesaurus and MLA Directory of Periodicals. The former’s controlled vocabularies “include names of persons, titles of works, languages, groups, genres, stylistic and structural features, themes, sources, influences, processes, theories, and other related topics … as of 2016 the MLA Thesaurus contains over 520,000 names and 68,000 terms.” MLAIB is “constantly updated” and currently has over 2.8 million records in its database. To read the complete review, go to ccadvisor.org. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. —J. Stoehr, CHOICE

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