FEER On-line
Since April 2000, the University of Amsterdam libraries were able to offer on-line access to fifty-one years of back issues of the well-known business magazine for Asia, 'Far Eastern Economic Review'. The purchase of this database has been made possible by a grant from the International Institute for Asian Studies.
By PIA VAN KROONENBURGH
Not only are all the issues from 1946 up to 1997 available in full text, but the database also includes images, such as cartoons and charts. Added to the original paper version's content is a timetable with an overview of important historical events in the region.The search engine not only makes it possible to do a single word search, but also to search using specific, controlled terms such as author's name, title, book reviews, images, and so on. Users are first presented with a brief title description after which they can request the full text of the article chosen. Results of searches can be expanded or narrowed by means of Boolean and proximity operators. Designed into the system is an extensive 'help' function that offers suggestions to users on appropriate search strategies for finding the desired full-text article. The programme also makes it possible to save these strategies for future searches.
The university has shelved the idea of subscribing to electronic versions of recent issues (after 1997) because their paper version still offers more information than the ones available on-line on the publisher's database. All kinds of problems in the technical field as well as with the licensing agreement have delayed the introduction of the journal's on-line archive, but now a wonderful database is finally accessible to all users within the domain of the University of Amsterdam.
The FEER Newsletter On-line can be found at http://www.feer.com
Pia van Kroonenburgh is librarian of the Department of Political, Social and Cultural Sciences of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
E-mail: E-mail: vankroonenburgh@pscw.uva.nl