I've been a big fan of X-Refer -- http://w1.xrefer.com/ -- since it first appeared. X-Refer is a free, searchable library of dozens of online dictionaries, encyclopedias, quote books, and biographical sources from reliable sources like Penguin, Oxford, Bloomsbury, MacMillan, etc. Of course I always worry about how free reference resources can afford to provide the service. X-Refer's answer is its bigger, better, subscription-based X-ReferPlus, now available in beta. I asked Daryl Rayner of X-Refer some questions about the new product.
Marylaine: Aside from being a much bigger database of reference resources, and available only by subscription, How does X-ReferPlus differ from X-Refer? Any other special features?
Daryl: xreferplus will have more than 3 times the amount of content, delivering over 100 titles from 20 leading British and American publishers. The extensive content means that our xreferencing technology, which cross-references between books, is richer than ever before, delivering a network of 5 million additional links. Using the xreference links, the user is able to go on an interesting voyage of discovery of connected information.
We have added a browse directory to xreferplus, too, which allows the user to access the content by subject headings, then by browsing through individual titles. The new advanced search allows users to employ Boolean logic when searching. In addition, users can perform single as well as multi-title search. The additional functionality is significant. xreferplus does not carry any commercial messages.
Marylaine: Once X-ReferPlus moves out of Beta, what kind of pricing model do you anticipate? Usage-based? Fixed subscription prices? How would you accommodate smaller libraries with smaller budgets? How would you let libraries make the service available to remote patrons?
Daryl: We anticipate using a 'size based' subscription calculation. There are clearly economies of scale, but we are pricing it so that it is affordable for smaller libraries too, which are important to us. Libraries will be allowed to make the service available to remote patrons via password authentication and by IP range.
Marylaine: Once X-Refer moves out of Beta, do you still intend to keep the smaller original X-Refer available for free?
Daryl: Absolutely. xrefer.com is an important showcase for our publishing partners' content and for our xreferencing technology. It receives nearly one million visits a month, thus showing a strong interest for this kind of content and technology.
Marylaine: Please tell us about the range of reference works you've selected for X-ReferPlus, and about your search system.
Daryl: The reference content covers general encyclopedia, dictionaries, thesauri and books of quotations. In addition, it delivers subject specific dictionaries in history, art politics, law, astronomy, and more. New areas for us are atlases, almanacs and bi-lingual dictionaries. It is rich in biographical content.
The xreferplus search offers the user a range of search tools including the tilde prefix (~) for when the user is unsure about the spelling of a word (~psycologist), heading searches (h:darwin) and the question mark within words for unknown letters (?ea?). Users can search by topic, by single title and by multiple titles as well as searching the whole database!
Marylaine: In what ways has your model changed in response to user suggestions?
Daryl: We have learnt two highly significant facts from our librarian feedback to date. One is that librarians want to be in control of selecting the titles that make up their electronic reference collections. For this reason we will be offering librarians the opportunity to select further titles that they can effectively bolt-on, to their core xreferplus collection. These could be specialist business, biography or arts collections, for example. Or a librarian may choose an additional 10 titles that all relate to American History. We also learned that some reference titles are more popular in the US than in Australia or the UK, for instance. So we will be building up regional options too.
Marylaine: Would you like my readers to test out the beta version?
Daryl: Yes please. Librarians can sign up for a trial at http://www.xreferplus.com
Marylaine: When do you expect it to move out of Beta and become a full-fledged subscription service?
Daryl: We will move out of beta at the end of October. Librarians will be able to subscribe to xreferplus from November.
Marylaine: Is there anything else you'd like my readers to know about the new product?
Daryl: We welcome 'expert' testers and would be delighted if any of your readers would like to answer some specific questions from us. For this they should e-mail Daryl Rayner directly: .
* * * * *
COOL QUOTE
Read every day something no one else is reading. Think every day something no one else is thinking. Do every day something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
Christopher Morley. Quoted in Information Anxiety 2, by Richard Saul Wurman.
* * * * *
You are welcome to copy and distribute or e-mail any of my own articles for noncommercial purposes (but not those by my guest writers) as long as you retain this copyright statement:
Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies.
http://marylaine.com/exlibris/
Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2001.
[Publishers may license the content for a reasonable fee.]
