Online access to reference books with a library card
Thursday, January 17th, 2008How many people in the UK know that a library card gives online access to a vast range of reference books, such as the OED, Who’s Who and Encyclopaedia Britannica? Rather few, to judge from Magnus Linklater’s column in today’s Times.
He recounts how he went about comparing Google’s entry for Nancy Mitford with the EB’s:
The Britannica required a 20-minute trip to my nearest library. It gave me 350 words and a bibliography with one entry (Harold Acton’s memoir). The online version offered the chance of signing up to a 30-day free trial, but still required my credit card details, replete with reassurances about taking my privacy “very seriously” - always a worrying sign. The DNB provided by far the best and fullest entry (but so it should). However, a month’s subscription costs £29.35, and a year will set you back £195 plus VAT.
Had he stayed at home he could have used some of the time saved also to check his own entries in Debrett’s People of Today 2006 and Who’s Who 2007.
(Note for Hampshire residents, as well as those who work or study in the county: take a look at Reference Online.)
