[Michlib-l] 'Mamelist' Discussion: RE: MeL Changes

Fri Jul 20 06:59:27 EDT 2018

Hi All,
We've been having a discussion on MAME's listserve about MeL changes.
Steven Bowers suggested that we have this conversation on the broader
MichLib-L with the thought that it would be useful to share concerns and
questions.

So, I'm providing a summary below since I did not get everyone's permission
to share their specific posts.  By the way, this discussion started before
Liz Breed announced the extension of the trial access to the new
MeL resources.  Thank you, Liz, for sending out that information!  That
will be helpful as we move forward.

Summary of the posts is below.
I hope that I did a good job of accurately reflecting the range of comments
during the discussion.

All my best,
--Kathy Lester

There is generally expressed concern of loss of Gale Databases along with
Scholastic BookFlix.  School librarians and teachers statewide have
lessons, pathfinders, presentations, scavenger hunts, Google Classroom
resources, assignment directions, etc. all developed around these
resources.  For school librarians, they often have to market the resources
to get teachers to use them and feel like we will be going back to square 1
trying to convince teachers to use new resources instead of 'Google."  Many
of us loved the seamless movement (look and feel) across Gale Databases.
For instance, Middle School students could use "Research in Context" and
then move to the more advanced "Opposing Viewpoints" with little
're-teaching.'  Since many schools are 'Google for Education'; our teachers
also loved the integration of Gale with Google Products.  [Maybe EBSCO has
this same integration, we will need to investigate with the trial now
available.]

Many of us were surprised that BookFlix was not renewed.  Based on
information from the Library of Michigan, BookFlix is the most used
resource on MeL, in fact, in FY18, Quarter 2,  the number of BookFlix
retrievals was 2,712,952 retrievals which is over a million more retrievals
than the next highest database (which is WorldBook Kids at 1,449,830).[See
information far below from an October 2017 MeL minute about MeL use
perception versus reality.]

We wonder if because there are so few school librarians in our state right
now, if responses to the surveys did not include enough school responses.
We believe that school librarians, (and yes, teachers without school
librarians at their schools) use resources like BookFlix to introduce MeL
to elementary school students (staff & parents).  Once they are there, it
is easy to show them the other great resources at MeL!

Also, there was concern in our mamelist conversation that with the emphasis
on early literacy and the 3rd grade reading law in our state, that there
will now be inequity of access to a resource like BookFlix.  School
districts that are *well funded* and who have librarians (or other staff)
"in the know" about this resource will be able to purchase it separately.
Others [most?] will not be able to do so.

Finally, the discussion also included some concern about
https://endsexualexploitation.org/ebsco/
https://endsexualexploitation.org/wp-content/uploads/DD_
2017_EBSCO_Notification-Letter_02-21-2017.pdf

Information was shared about this extremist group as follows:

 The https://endsexualexploitation.org group is purportedly a site that
defines sexual exploitation and pornography in a way that does not fit the
understood definitions of the words to the general population.  That is,
they may see things such as soap ads in a magazine as pornography if they
show more than they want to see.  This group has been hounding lots of
libraries and states that provide broad database access.  Their work is
similar to groups or individuals that as libraries not to carry books on
viewpoints that they do not agree with.

It is good to know the above site exists, so that if anyone asks about it
you can prepare a reply.  But many (most?) of the materials that the group
objects to are found in any general library database that has general
magazines in it.  The state (and libraries in general) provides access to
many materials that not everyone likes.  Especially for those of us that
provide services to children, we have to be aware of what we have access to
and ready to provide a thoughtful answer to those who may question the
access we provide.

I checked an article listed in their letter earlier and the same articles
are in the Gale products.  Articles about sex exist in general databases,
perhaps with links to porn sites.  Some academic articles in academic
research journals or even in grocery-check-out-line magazines are useful or
entertaining to adults but not recommended for children.  Hopefully the
kid-specific databases from EBSCO are more "safe."

Here is a little info on how some have dealt with this group:

https://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=11496

They are not just against EBSCO, but ALA, and others, that promote access
to material they find objectionable.

EBSCO even made it into their Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Center_on_Sexual_
Exploitation#EBSCO_controversy

*MeL Minute EMAIL FROM DEB BIGGS 10/2018 to mamelist*

As you may be aware, we recently conducted a large-scale survey of the
Michigan library community about MeL database usage. We received 426
responses. One question we asked was: What are the top 3 most used
databases by your library/patrons? Here's what library staff had to say:

1.       Chilton’s (117 times it appeared somewhere in the top 3)

2.       Learning Express (117)

3.       Opposing Viewpoints in Context (94)

4.       Academic OneFile (87)

5.       Britannica school (68)

We decided to cross-reference this in two ways. First, we looked at the
total number of full-text retrievals from the MeL databases.

1.       BookFlix

2.       WorldBook Kids

3.       Academic OneFile

4.       Britannica Suite

5.       Opposing Viewpoints in Context

All 5 of these received over 1 million full-text retrievals for the 2017
fiscal year!

As you can see, Opposing Viewpoints in Context, Britannica and Academic
OneFile made both of these lists.

Let's look at one other metric and that's the rate at which items were
clicked on from MeL.org in the month of September of this year. This is the
percentage of outbound traffic from MeL.org.

1.       BookFlix (40%)

2.       Academic OneFile (6%)

3.       Learning Express (4%)

4.       Opposing Viewpoints in Context (3%)

5.       Chilton’s (3%)

Looking at this list, we can see that Chilton's and Learning Express, two
resources rated highly in the survey, come back to the fore. However, by
far and away the resource with the highest traffic at MeL.org is BookFlix,
an early literacy resource.

Many thanks to Kathy Kosinski, our data analyst, for pulling these numbers
together and allowing us to compare and confirm our ideas about database
usage with actual usage.

*Brought to you by Deb Renee Biggs and Sonya Schryer Norris, Library
Consultants at the Library of Michigan*

Kathy Lester, MLIS, MA
*Advocacy Chair, Past-President 2014*
Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME)
*Region 3 Director*
American Association of School Librarians (AASL)
*SIGLIB Communications Director*
Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL)
*School Library Media Specialist / Technology Coach*
*SL21 Model Library, 2017-2018*
*SL21 Exemplary Ranking - Michigan School Libraries for the 21st Century
2016-2019*
East Middle School, Plymouth-Canton Schools
*ISTE Making IT Happen Award Winner*
*2017 MAME Michigan School Library Program of the Year*
*2012 **State Librarian's Excellence Award Winner*
kathyL at mimame.org
twitter: @LibraryL <https://twitter.com/LibraryL>
810.333.5873
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