FreePint Keeps Customers Informed About Sources
Jinfo Blog

By Fokkelien Fink

Abstract

Some of the most-shared articles in FreePint are our monthly "source" updates. The updates are proving so popular that we'll be extending them to cover a greater number of aggregators and plans are afoot to add those information sources which focus on web-based content and social media. Fokkelian Fink reports on why these updates are so useful and which other FreePint resources can help subscribers to stay aware of source and publisher changes.

Item

Every month, one of FreePint's contributing editors, Anne Jordan, researches and writes about the latest source changes in some of the most widely used aggregators, including Factiva and Nexis.com. These are among the most-read and most-shared FreePint articles.

That makes sense, given that many of our customers take a FreePint Subscription specifically to stay informed about changes in sources. The response has been so strong that we're adding resources to producing this kind of article: EBSCO, ProQuest and Eureka will now be covered regularly, and we're also looking into how to adapt our research approach to include coverage of products that specialise in web-based content and social media.

Usage of Anne's most recent article on Factiva offers a view into how FreePint supports organisational awareness of sources, for different needs:

• At several different publishers, staff shared the article, highlighting in their comments competitive titles of interest
• The global research team at a consultancy shared the article with each other, noting new additions to Factiva that should prove useful
• The information manager in an insurance company shared the article with a colleague, explaining that it listed the types of resources available through Factiva.

Other Source Insights

FreePint provides insight about sources in other ways as well.

Every product review published includes a chapter on the sources and content that go into the product. Browse and click into the reports in the Information Content section of the FreePint site to find products of interest and download the relevant reports.

We also comment regularly on the economic and business factors that encourage publishers to remove their content from databases. For example, a quick search on the FreePint site on the term "paywall" brings up dozens of articles commenting on the ways publishers try to monetise their content on their own behalf, make it publicly available, or license it into database products.

Sources are a critical - yet complex - part of any organisation's content portfolio. FreePint aims to cut through some of that complexity to let you focus on what's critical.

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