INSIDE MLB AND INSIDE THE NFL

Grade Level Inside MLB and Inside the NFL are third to fifth grade products.Cost Pricing starts at $395 per database for a one-year subscription with reduced rates for three- and five-year commitments. Database and book packages start at $895. Visit ABDO (http://bit.ly/ihq6pD) for pricing details or call (800) 800-1312 to locate a sales representative in your area. Overview ABDO's Inside MLB and Inside the NFL databases are Web-based companions to the ABDO book series of the same names. Geared toward students in grades 3—5, the databases cover all 32 NFL and 30 MLB teams and offer additional content and resources not available in print. Baseball and football fans will find plenty of details to dive into, but these resources will also work well for schooling newcomers. The databases cover all aspects of their respective sports, including information on players, history, statistics, and championship teams. Photos and interactive games add interest and extend learning. Look and Feel The format and functionality of Inside the NFL and Inside MLB is quite similar. After logging in, users will view a beautiful home screen. For Inside the NFL, a moving slideshow of photos of football greats pans across the screen as a fanfare of horns plays in the background. The MLB database does something similar, playing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." These Flash-based intros pique interest while giving users an idea of what each database offers. A great hook. After the slideshow openers, maps of the United States appear with icons marking the 32 NFL and 30 MLB cities. Hovering over the icons identifies the city and team name. The icons are clickable, leading to the individual team pages. This interactive map is an excellent way to find more information on specific teams. Overall, home-screen navigation is clear. Category buttons appear in a banner above the map, providing a drop-down list of teams sorted by league or conference, History, Champions, Statistics, Hall of Famers, Photos, and Games. Located at the top of the page is a search bar with fairly straightforward functionality. A search for "Barry Sanders" quickly pulled up every article, stat, and time line page mentioning the Hall of Fame running back. Results are shown as excerpts with the search term highlighted, helping users navigate faster. One significant improvement would have been a "did you mean" feature to help guide users whose search terms didn't return any results. In this age of anything goes spelling for names, such a feature would benefit users. Speed is crucial for any online resource, and these databases deliver with snappy page-loading. If the goal is to never have the user think about why things are taking so long (especially important in kids' resources), ABDO has succeeded. How It Works Exploring the categories listed on the main page, you get a sense of how much information is included. The History section is a chronological list of events and anecdotes about the leagues, providing an overview of how the sport has changed over time. This section includes data on teams that changed cities and names, notable championships, labor issues (apropos given the current NFL labor dispute), outstanding statistical seasons, and more. The section on Champions is an excellent at-a-glance resource. For Inside the NFL, this page provides a summary of every Super Bowl and a few facts about the game (final score, date, location and MVP). The MLB site is a bit more brief, sticking to the facts and foregoing the summary. Both are helpful for learning about past championship teams in each sport. I like to think that students could use this resource to settle the common disputes over sports facts that arise among friends. The Statistics page is a nice way to view the all-time leaders in various categories including touchdowns, rushing yards, and receptions for the NFL and batting average, home runs, and strikeouts for MLB. Bold text is used to highlight active players—a helpful touch. I was happy to see that this statistical information is updated through the current season. The Hall of Famers section lists honored players and the year they were inducted. The roster is arranged by year and provides a comprehensive overview of the best players in the sport. Many of the names are hyperlinked. In the MLB database, clicking one of these names brings up a pop-up with a short bio on the player, while clicking on a hyperlinked name in the NFL site directs users to the team page mentioning the player. The MLB bios will be more useful for students. One especially impressive feature is the team image galleries, available in the Photos section and individual team pages. With the help of image-viewing software Piclens, photos can be viewed in slideshow mode and increased to full-screen size. Images are important for kids, so it was nice to see this feature. Each team has just over 20 pictures for users to browse through. Oddly, Piclens is only available on Inside the NFL—the MLB resource employs a less flashy (but still effective) shadow box for displaying photos. The interactive games do well in balancing information and pure entertainment. Quizzes on key athletes and positions inform, while a Field Goal challenge is basically like that folded paper game kids play in digital form, kicking as many field goals as time will allow. I was disappointed about the promise of video on the main page of Inside the NFL. After scouring the site, I was able to come up with exactly one clip—an overview of the first Superbowl. If you're going to make promises, you need to deliver—here's hoping ABDO beefs up the video section or does away with the claim. The individual team pages are where the rubber meets the road here. The team pages all have a similar layout with text and image taking up most of the screen and a list of five chapter headings and additional features running down the side as buttons. Each team page opens with a "Spotlight On" section with an overview of the franchise and any details that set it apart from other teams. Following that there's typically a chapter on the early history of the team and sections detailing high or low points in franchise history. Descriptive titles such as "73-0 and the Glory Years" and "Getting Back to the Super Bowl" give readers an idea of what they'll be reading about. After this detailed history is a link to a team time line. Important trades, exceptional player performances, and key wins make up the bulk of this information. The Quick Stats page has a rundown of notable players and coaches, as well as information about championships and home fields. Quotes and anecdotes is a miscellanea section, providing a handful of brief stories of interest and quotes about the game. The More Information section lists further reading, Web links, and places to visit associated with the team. The suggested reading lists are short, but full of recently published titles. The Places to Visit section is a helpful addition, listing the addresses and websites of stadiums, spring training facilities, and the Hall of Fame. The Web Links section located under "More Information" was not as useful. The text instructs readers to visit ABDO's Book Links page on their site for related links. The hyperlink takes the user to ABDO's main site with no clear path for finding said links. After spending significant time on the site, I was unable to find any links related to any of the teams. Similar to the video content issue described above, this dead-end should be addressed. Beneath this menu is a brief fact about the team that rotates randomly, quietly serving up additional information. Since these databases are adapted from book series, the reading experience is more book-like. The text is written at an appropriate level and is clear and easy to read. As the ereading experience is becoming richer, it's worth noting that there are no added features here like narration or a glossary. Inside MLB has links for related content that pull up pop-up windows with details on important moments, such as Cal Ripken Jr.'s record-breaking games played streak. I was disappointed to see that Inside the NFL did not have these related content links. Another multimedia element that would have made an impact is audio. Interviews with players and coaches and even audio from various stadiums or Hall of Fame speeches would have added a valuable multimedia element. For the intended age level, a pretty impressive content set. Users will leave feeling like they know their stuff. For Students, Teachers, and Librarians Unlike other student-centered databases, the ABDO NFL and MLB products have little in the way of additional resources or features specifically for teachers. The focus is on the student experience. Librarians know how difficult it is to keep professional sports materials current, so if (and this is an important if) ABDO keeps these databases regularly updated, this will be a nice way for collections to stay up to speed. Since these databases are essentially book series made available digitally, they provide circulation advantages that couldn't exist with print. For instance, students can access the information without having to worry about the books being checked out. If the content is updated, this will be an easy way to keep collections current in the always-changing world of professional sports. And of course, the wear and tear that limits the life of print books will not be a problem here. There are advantages for students as well. Since Inside the NFL and Inside MLB are Web-based, students can access them at any time from home with a username and password. Due to the high-interest subject matter, these are databases I can see students delving into just for pleasure reading purposes. Multiple users can read the same information at once, eliminating those tricky occasions when a library only has one copy of a book. While some will still prefer the portability of print, the digital advantages make these databases very user-friendly. Verdict For teachers and librarians used to purchasing databases with more traditionally "scholarly" information, the concept of offering resources dedicated to a professional sport might seem foreign. When viewed as supplements to your nonfiction section, however, they become more appealing. ABDO has ably put a database spin on their print series. Schools looking for a sports section update or for an appealing new option for reluctant readers should give Inside the NFL and Inside MLB a look.