Re: Gale buys Questia

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

The interesting question was raised by a librarian on the 
Chronicle blog:

>I am puzzled by Gale's acquisition of Questia. On one hand, Gale 
>sells information products directly to libraries for either 
>year-to-year subscriptions or one-time purchases. Either way, 
>the libraries then give their students access to the content - 
>no tollroad charges to the student. Questia's model has always 
>been to sign up students as individual subscribers (although 
>they too were selling questia content to entire school 
>districts). So what will we have. Gale selling content to 
>libraries - and then trying to get the students to subscribe to 
>Questia - which means the students are paying for access to the 
>same information twice.

Bottom line: What does this mean for students and academic 
libraries that already subscribe to Gale content?

*****

>"Gale yesterday announced the acquisition of Questia Media, a 
>subscription platform for humanities and social sciences 
>content...Questia has been used by undergraduate, high school, 
>and graduate students, and a variety Internet users; Gale says 
>the deal extends its reach to end users and consumers....In 
>recent months, Gale has focused heavily on this strategy, 
>working to improve the Google PageRank of its content and 
>services."
>
>http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6716946.htm
>
>Bernie Sloan