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An Update from the

Database Statewide Contract:

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners is pleased to announce that it has awarded contracts to Thomson Gale, ProQuest CSA and EBSCO Industries for statewide online magazine, newspaper and reference book databases to begin on July 1, 2007.

Among the Thomson Gale products will be 13 periodical, biographical, reference and news databases covering an array of subjects and 23 Gale Virtual Reference library titles. ProQuest CSA will be providing 12 Massachusetts full-text newspapers (some going back to 1980), and EBSCO, its Literary Reference Center.

These resources will be available to all Massachusetts Regional Library System member libraries. All residents of the Commonwealth holding a valid library card from Massachusetts can also use these resources from any computer with Internet access. School libraries and academic libraries that are members of the Massachusetts Regional Library System will have campus-wide access, and non-profit institutional member libraries are permitted access for their offices in Massachusetts.

To read the entire release and see a list of the individual database titles, go to http://www.mass.gov/mblc and click on Statewide Online Database Contracts Awarded.

Survey of Use of and Attitudes Toward Library Services Among Massachusetts Residents - February 2007

As part of the preparation of the Massachusetts Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Long Range Plan 2008-2012, a web-based survey was conducted in January 2007 by Market Street Research on “Use Of and Attitudes Towards Library Services Among Massachusetts Residents.”

The objectives of the study were to determine:

  • Residents’ overall use of Massachusetts libraries.
  • Residents’ awareness and use of specific library services.
  • Residents’ satisfaction with their primary library and its staff.
  • Methods for increasing overall library use.
  • Residents’ attitudes regarding the role of librarians.
  • Residents’ preferred channels of communication regarding library resources.

See a presentation of the survey results by Dr. Julie Pokela of Market Street Research at http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/lsta/market_st_survey.pdf.