Hi Sanjeet, this happens more frequently than you would like with “full-text” databases. Patrons discover “missing” content and report it to us. We try to troubleshoot as best we can—is this a knowledgebase error (i.e. incorrect holdings) or is it a problem at the content provider’s end.

 

When we know we have to submit the problem to the content provider, in this case EBSCOHost support, we always tell the patron (or librarian) to go through ILL because the issue will not be resolved in time to meet their needs. In our experience, these issues are not resolved in 24 hours and some may linger for months.  Hence, we automatically push to ILL.

 

I should also mention that EBSCO has a threshold for what they will identify as full text. I cannot recall exactly what the percentage is but it is not 100%.  Therefore the answer you might receive is that the particular article in question will never be available. You have to accept and move on.  Not easy to explain to irate patrons or faculty members, but I suppose that makes large operations run fairly efficiently. And sometimes, there is content within the article, such as a photograph, for which online reproductions rights we never granted. I would be more willing to accept this less than full-text business if only the specific articles impacted were obviously labeled and thus would save both the library and the vendor the staff time to make and respond to problem reports.

 

Good luck Sanjeet!

 

Susan

 

 

Susan Davis

Acquisitions Librarian for Continuing Resources

University at Buffalo (SUNY)

134 Lockwood Library

Buffalo, NY 14260-2210

716-645-2784

716-645-5955 fax

unlsdb@buffalo.edu

http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/staff/index.asp?ID=124

 

 

 

 

 

From: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG] On Behalf Of Mann, Sanjeet
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 1:31 PM
To: SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG
Subject: [SERIALST] How long does it take to resolve problems with missing database content?

 

Dear SERIALST subscribers,

 

For the last three months I've been corresponding with Ebsco support staff about missing content from a journal aggregated in the Omnifile and Education Research Complete databases. As of this morning's email, the problem is still not solved, motivating me to ask you all what you do when you become aware that content is missing from an aggregator database. Do you report the problem to technical support, or just fill the requested item via ILL and let it go? If you do try to get it fixed "properly", how long does it take from the time your library user reports the problem to the time the vendor writes back to say the content has been loaded?  

 

Thanks for considering this question, 

Sanjeet Mann

Arts and Electronic Resources Librarian

Armacost Library, University of Redlands

(909) 748-8051

 

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