When William Frederick Poole’s revised Index to Periodical Literature appeared for sale in the year 1883, the New York Times greeted its publication with ovations: It is impossible to exhaust, in a general way, the enumeration of the benefits which are likely to result from the circulation of this work. It will quicken every man’s thinking. It will narrow the distance between what has been done and what is to be done. It will make a thousand men known for what they have done who would otherwise have gone to their graves without the public recognition of what they had written. It will immensely increase the value of the periodical as a vehicle of discussion and information. It will greatly facilitate the diffusion of knowledge among the masses. It will give currency anew to the best thought of the first three‐quarters of the [19th] century
Jump forward 117 years and many of these same commendations are still valid for the new electronic version of the index: Poole’s Plus.
Poole’s Plus is a comprehensive electronic index for accessing the printed output of the nineteenth century. Comprised of five series, which can be purchased as a set or individually, the complete database covers periodicals, monographs, and public documents. The foundation of the product is a combined module of Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature (1802‐1881 with supplements 1882‐1906) and William T. Stead’s Index to Periodicals (1890‐1902) often called the “British Poole’s”. Together, these two titles constitute the beginning stage of the Periodicals Series, which will, in all likelihood, be the most popular module once the database is complete. Other Series include: Books (19th Century Books Masterfile), Newspapers (New York Times: 1863‐1905 and New York Daily Tribune: 1875‐1906), Individual Titles (Harper’s Magazine: 1876‐1897 and Library Journal: 1876‐1897), and Government Documents (Descriptive Catalog of the Government Publications of the US: 1774‐1881). The database is a work in progress, and each series will incorporate several other titles as digitization continues. Future titles of particular interest will be Palmer’s Index to the Times of London (1790‐1925), Index to Legal Periodical Literature (1786‐1922), Index to Nature Magazine (1865‐1880), and Index Medicus (1879‐1927).
All series share a common interface displaying the available indexes by title under individual series headings. Using check marks, users can select any number of titles and execute a keyword search across multiple indexes and series simultaneously. Keyword searches query the database to extract entries containing the word anywhere in the bibliographic record of an individual article. It is important to remember that the original records in most of these indexes were simple subject entries (i.e., extremely brief citations) for which the title was often not particularly descriptive. In today’s world of extensive abstracts and full text, the search results initially may seem disappointing. However, this is a faithful reproduction of the original indexing work, and historical research has never been an easy task. The ability to reach heretofore inaccessible documents has been greatly expanded by the keyword search feature. Early print indexes did not always exhibit the best use of authority control of subject language. For example, although the print volume of Poole’s Index includes the heading “Niagara Suspension Bridge,” it also contains a heading for “Bridge, Niagara Suspension”. Only by doing a keyword search electronically do both come up together.
One extremely annoying feature of the database is that options for refining searches do not work effectively. The search box is a simple one‐line query form. No instructions are given for typing Boolean operators directly into the box. Instead, radio buttons below the search box prompt the user to select options for a banded search (“exact phrase” or “exact words”), truncation (“singular and plural forms” or “word variants”), and selected Boolean searching (“all of the words” or “any of the words”). Most of these options work fine. Unfortunately, using the “all of the words” feature does not work reliably. If no record exists with both words (an “AND” search) the query defaults back to “OR”. In addition to the problems with the Boolean “AND”, the lack of a true limiting function is also quite frustrating.
Although it is possible to browse the indexed contents of individual journals,the option to search a particular journal title by subject or by date does not exist. Extremely basic keyword searching is essentially the only option, and help screens even indicate that one word searches will produce the best results. More advanced options are needed.
While many libraries continue to retain printed indexes to periodical literature, it has become painfully obvious that patrons often are unlikely to use these resources and instead rely only on information available in electronic format. The result is that writings produced before the last quarter of the 20th century are becoming completely lost to a new generation of undergraduates. Poole’s Plus is an excellent resource for encouraging the use of historical magazines, newspapers, and documents. The reasonable cost and the dramatic increase in document accessibility make this a wonderful resource for any library with nineteenth century periodical backfiles. However, problems with the searching interface are still substantial and can make the use of the database a frustrating experience. Internal server errors also seemed to occur with some regularity. Hopefully, Paratext will continue to refine what promises to be an excellent product. Recommended.
