We have a CUNY-wide trial to all 10 collections provided by Books 24×7. The collections are listed in the database page. Comments and discussions are appreciated.
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News and tips by and for staff providing reference services at the Newman Library, Baruch College (New York, NY).
The Books 24/7 collection covers a broad selection of subjects beyond what meets the eye. The list of “collections” gives the impression that the materials are mainly business oriented. That’s not the case. When I did a search for “food,” I found books about diets, nutrition, and the food business. A search for “food industry” results in some books about the industry, but includes diet and nutrition books as well. It seems to be performing an “OR” search rather than an “AND” search. The results can be very strange. For example, a search for “diet” yields 43 results, the first three of which are:
OS/390 e-business Infrastructure: IBM HTTP Server V5.1 for OS/390
The Definitive Guide to GCC, Second Edition
Base SAS 9.2 Procedures Guide: Statistical Procedures
I’ve been on many diets, but have never come across any of these.
Also, when you conduct a search, the system seems to automatically do a within results search for any subsequent search terms you enter. I did try the advanced search. It doesn’t offer any real “advanced” options for more precise results.
So, for Books 24/7 collections the content is very good, but the search and retrieval functions leave much to be desired.