Relevant Databases in the Field of International Relations and Area Studies. A Survey of Database Usage. Petra Galle Tallinn, September 18, 2008

The structure of the presentation  Part I: The setting of the questionnaire  Part II: Experiences with databases at SWP (LIS)  Part III: Results of the questionnaire  Conclusions open to discussion

Part I: The EINIRAS questionnaire  Questions about:  Which databases are relevant to your library?  Which one is the most relevant?  Are library catalogues relevant?  Do you search factual / statistical databases?  About 30 % response rate (15 institutes) Questions and Answers

Part II: Experiences with databases at SWP (LIS) Relevance is determined by  The content that has to meet the information need  The availability of online access  The availability of fulltexts / information about the location of the holding  The search and export tools a database offers What is a relevant database to SWP?

Part II: Experiences with databases at SWP (LIS)  Search for literature:  WAO / IREON portal  ECLAS / Eur-Lex  Policy Pointers  EIU Country Reports / RGE Monitor  Search for news:  Factiva / Lexis Nexis  Search for statistical data:  Eurostat / Source OECD / IMF / Worldbank Mainly used databases at SWP

Part III: Results of the EINIRAS questionnaire  Free access:  EDN  ISN  WAO / IREON portal  Access for charge:  CIAO  Factiva  JSTOR Mainly used databases within EINIRAS Altogether more than 50 databases were mentioned as being „relevant“.

Part III: Results of the EINIRAS questionnaire  Free Access:  National or the European statistical bureaus  Access for charge:  SourceOECD  IMF databases  World Bank databases Main statistical databases 10 out of 15 answering institutes search statistical databases.

Part III: Results of the EINIRAS questionnaire  The institute‘s own database  DCISM  FIV-member institutes  National or supranational portals  Greece: National Documentation Centre EKT  Sweden: LIBRIS  Commercial journal databases  EBSCO  Factiva  Google Central points of starting a search

Part III: Results of the EINIRAS questionnaire  Journal articles / newspaper articles  EBSCO / LexisNexis  News compilations  BBC Monitoring Service  Analysing reports  Oxford Analytica  Economist Intelligence Unit Country Reports Relevant databases not being at an institute‘s disposal

Conclusions open to discussion … does not exist in our field. Nor the super-portal. 1. The one-and-the-only database … 2. Existing databases and portals in our field – as EDN, ISN and IREON – can yet meet only parts of the information demands

Conclusions open to discussion 3. Open Access repositories … … yet do not play an important role. DOAJ and ISN are the only ones which were especially mentioned in the survey. 4. Statistical databases … … are needed but expensive.

Conclusions open to discussion … do EINIRAS institutes find by participating  in national subscription policies  Subscription to EBSCO in the Czech Republic  National licences in Germany  and in cooperations with parlamentary or university libraries to use their online access 5. A solution to this situation …

The End Thank you very much for your attention! The floor is open for discussion now! Thank you very much for your attention!