By Amy Fendley Finally there is an answer to library information access woes. Just click onto the Whistler Public Library website to experience Ebscohost — information is made easy. Ebscohost is an on-line service that provides access to full-text magazine databases. From home, registered library patrons can search the up-to-date database by keywords or subjects to find articles on any topic. Joan Richoz, head librarian at the Whistler Public Library, is excited about the databases which will provide new opportunities for borrowers to surf through reams of information without having to physically be in the library. This will also help to reduce battle-time over the library’s four computer terminals. Richoz expects the new resource will especially assist the many students who use the library on a regular basis. "Anybody who’s doing research about anything can look it up on our site, and if there’s an article you need, you’ll find it," says Richoz. "We have a lot of student users, from elementary school to university." In order to access the database, you must first have a library card number, which acts as an entry ID number. The library is a member in a chain of Interlink libraries, so access to other collections is possible as well. The database is customized to give a library subscription listing at the end of each article, so if the Whistler location doesn’t subscribe to a certain magazine it will tell users at which site they can find it. There are six main databases on the Whistler Public Library site to choose from: o MasterFILE Premier provides abstracts and indexing for more than 3,100 periodicals, plus searchable full text for more than 1,500 active periodicals. A total of more than four million articles. o Business Source Elite provides comprehensive access to abstracts and indexing for 1,500 titles, plus searchable full text for more than 770 business periodicals. o Health Source Plus provides abstracts and indexing for over 520 consumer health, nutrition and professional periodicals. More than 240 periodicals are covered in full text, over 1,000 health pamphlets and 17 health books published by the People’s Medical Society. o Primary Search provides the full text of more than 40 magazines for young readers, abstracts and indexing for 120 magazines, as well as encyclopedias and almanacs. o Funk and Wagnalls New World Encyclopaedia provides over 25,000 informative segments of the encyclopaedia. o Animals provides in-depth information on a variety of topics relating to animals. The database consists of indexing, abstracts and full text records describing the nature and habitat of familiar animals. The database is programmed in "natural language," so young users can enter in a question or statement, rather than combining key words to find relevant articles. The library’s website is at: www.whistlerweb.net/library
