Personal Library

I'm not sure what to make of this resource. I'm talking about Questia, what appears a subscription-based online library which you can access via one of several personal subscription plans including the low annual price of $99.95 per year. It gets a big zero in the science resources column, but I'm not sure how the humanities journal titles stand up.

This is from the "about" section for librarians-

"Although the agreements licensing the content on Questia from publishers prohibits us from selling directly to libraries, Questia is a great resource for librarians who routinely assist undergraduate students in their research efforts to recommend to their students."

This is from the "about" section for publishers-

"When students borrow a library book or photocopy pages directly from texts, you lose an opportunity for revenue. The Questia business model captures that opportunity. Students and other users are able to search the Questia collection at no charge, but they cannot access a single page without paying a subscription fee. Publishers receive revenue from these subscription fees each time a student views a page of one of your works."

A community college librarian on the ERIL-L asked if anyone had any experience with providing individual Questia accounts to students... Isn't that what EZ Proxy is for?

Open Library

Story from InsideHigherEd.com:

"Open Library is a new online tool for finding information about books – even (perhaps especially) for titles that are out-of-print, scarce, or likely to find one reader per decade, if even that. It is, so to speak, a catalog with benefits. If a text is available in digital format, there is a link. you to it. Citations and excerpts from reviews will be available. Likewise, cross-references to other works on related topics. A user of Open Library can see the cover of the book and, in some cases, search the contents."

SDK