In late June, ProQuest, one of our largest suppliers of scholarly databases, purchased Alexander Street Press, which is particularly strong on primary sources, music, and video. Some of the many ASP databases IU East uses include VAST, a multidisciplinary video collection, Black Thought and Culture, North American Immigrant Letters and Diaries, Women and Social Movements, Underground and Independent Comics, American Film Scripts, Oral History Online, and Twentieth Century North American Drama. So, there is a lot that we use that will probably look a bit different by next year.

In fact, the vast majority of academic library resources at IU East come from one of two vendors – the EBSCO corporation or ProQuest. In many ways, this is great news. Having a lot of databases from one company can be a great convenience. If you’re familiar with one of the databases, you’ll probably have no problem using others. And often, they’re cross searchable – you can easily use all of the ProQuest databases at once, if you like.

They’re also fairly comprehensive. In addition to databases covering every academic discipline, ProQuest has previously purchased eBrary for ebooks, RefWorks citation management software, Serials Solutions (what you use to look up a journal or link to a database with full text), and the publisher Chadwyck-Healey. And EBSCO has competing databases for every academic area, has purchased companies like NetLibrary (subsequently rebranded) for ebooks, YBP (which our library uses to purchase resources), and even book publishing company H. W. Wilson. Both EBSCO and Cambridge Information Group, which owns ProQuest, are huge companies with wide-ranging services.

But this acquisition is concerning, too, because as the number of gatekeepers falls, you have less and less choices in who filters and aggregates your information. This isn’t unique to libraries – with seemingly every industry, more and more of the tools are in fewer and fewer hands. And that mean less diversity of thought, as smaller numbers of people decide what to include and what not to offer.

This effect can be insidious. For example, when searching using Google or Bing, your results are tailored to things you’ve already selected. So, for example, if you always click on an MSNBC link for news, eventually most or all of the news links you get will be from there. If you pick Fox News instead, you’ll see the same effect. But this means you become locked into a kind of mental prison you did not agree to, as any search you run will only return material that confirms your worldview. It’s not necessarily intentional – but the effect is the same, and damaging to critical thought.

So while we will enjoy the convenience of those Alexander Street Press databases becoming part of ProQuest, it’s an important reminder to consider who is packaging our information, and how it might be affected in the transmission. Most databases don’t tailor their results based on what you’ve already used, yet. And most don’t deliberately try to exclude particular perspectives. But they’re made by human beings, and even the best can be flawed. Remember – it’s best not to get stuck in a rut. Consume information from multiple sources and compare them frequently. Think critically, and don’t blindly believe whatever you read – regardless of the source. Information should serve you, rather than control you. And an informed, critical reader will always have an advantage.

Need help searching? Ask us at iueref@iue.edu!