IQ Reference Review
IQ Reference Review
I was recently turned on to a special deal on a reference site that I plan on
using very often. If you're like me, you regularly visit newsgroups, MSDN, the
Knowledge Base, and any other site that has proven to be of value when it comes
to finding answers (SQLServerCentral.com included, of course). You also
might have a limited personal book budget, and in these belt-tightening times,
perhaps have even had the company training budget put on hold.
IQ Destination
(http://www.iqdestination.com) has a great solution to satisfy your thirst
for knowledge on a shoestring budget. Subscribe to this site, and it's
like putting a bookstore at your fingertips. We at SQLServerCentral.com
have inked a deal with them that will make it easier and cheaper for you to sign
up, and get some great discounts on MCDBA reference material packages.
They
currently have over 300 books available online for viewing and purchase.
They will be adding 100 books in the near future, and about 10 more books per
month - based in part on subscriber feedback.
Subscribing
You can self-register on the site for a free seven day evaluation. This
trial membership is limited in that you are not able to view the entire contents
of what is returned for your searched or bookmarks. If you register
through their sales department, you get the same period to evaluate the site,
but there are no limits to what you are able to view. The standard subscription
rate is $199 for a 90 day subscription, and $299 for a one year
subscription. Group discounts are available.
For a limited time, SQL Server Central has arranged a series of specials for our
members. We have a series of specials through October 7th, 2001. Click the links below to
take advantage of them.
Finding Reference Materials
There are three ways to locate reference materials regarding
a particular topic of interest. You can perform a keyword search, do a lookup by author, title, publisher, or ISBN, or
you can browse the pre-defined hierarchy of reference categories.
| Performing a keyword search will return a
very well organized list of reference materials that meet your criteria to
varying degrees. The returned items are ranked by relevance - high,
medium, and low, and are further qualified by ranking the particular sections of
the book that pertain to your search criteria via a small meter bar next to each
section. Along with the rankings, you get a picture of the cover, a brief
summary of what the book is about, and links to the book and its table of
contents.
Here's a sample search result for keyword "DTS". |
 |
If you know the title of the book, or even just want to do a search on the
title or author, the results are a listing of any relevant matches similar to
the keyword search. There are no rankings, so all you get is the picture
and the brief summary. Browsing through the hierarchical listings is
fairly intuitive, and they are put together in logical groupings. I
prefer the keyword search above all, but it's nice to be able to get a high
level view of what they offer.
What happens if you have found something you like, and
you decide you want to have the paper version of the book? Well, they conveniently offer a
purchase option right on the site. You click on a "purchase
book" link, and you are taken to one of the several popular on-line book
retailers.
The Bookshelf
One very cool feature of the site is the bookshelf - basically, it's a
customized favorites list of reference materials you have found on the
site. The beauty of this is that you can let other members of your group
subscription (colleagues) view your bookmarks, and you can check out theirs.
You can add notes about any items of interest that you happen to come across,
and set alerts that notify you of any new titles in which you specify an
interest. When you are viewing sections of a book, and create a bookmark
(instructions are on the site), they are put in this bookshelf section for easy
retrieval.
Conclusion
A couple of navigational oddities, in my opinion, are that you set you
display options and edit your personal preferences in the Bookshelf section, and
the "contact us" information is located in the help section. Not
counter-intuitive by any means, and once you've found it, you should have no
trouble getting there again. The site is well laid out and has a clean
look and feel to it. Using the subscription model, they can get away with
not putting up any advertisements.
Overall, I was very impressed with the site, and will certainly recommend
that we purchase a group subscription for our company. While even though
any $30 to $60 dollar book will pay for itself if it gives you a few ideas on
how to solve a problem you are having, most of the books I buy sit on a shelf
after I read them and then become dated not long after that. There's
always something new to learn about, and that's what I find so appealing about
this "leasing" model. You can get to the substance of what you
need to solve a problem, and if you like what you've read, you have the option
to buy the book and have it shipped to you. You can still access the whole
book on-line, so even if you need to get some information (and have chosen not
to carry your books wherever you go), it's just a mouse click away.
