ProQuest is trying to help libraries.

It's a little pathetic, but ProQuest has a page with tips for libraries to help market their subscriptions of online databases to the public. There are brochures and flash animations and sample scripts for radio promotions which attempt to help with copy like this:

your local public library’s online resources are the safe, free, reliable alternative to hit-or-miss web surfing

It probably didn't take more than a minute to come up with that. (Please, tell me it didn't.) But I guess if your library spends $75,000 a year on ProQuest databases, and never thought for a moment what to tell the public about them, then I guess these documents could help. Me, I would put a counter on the database page that subtracts $2 from the $75,000 after each search. Then at the end of the year, whatever was left unused I would post on our web page, saying, "You people wasted $xxxxx of your tax money. Use these damn databases or we'll raise your taxes and purchase more of them."

This, unfortunately, is the lamest attempt to help: "Sample database descriptions that speak “patron” rather than library language." These helpful descriptions include:

Humanities—The thoughts and doings of humanity
Isn't it wrong to explain a word by using another variation of that word to define it?
International—What’s happening abroad?
What's happening Internationally?
Psychology—Isn’t there a new drug for schizophrenia? How can I help my child learn?
Well, if your kid is schizophrenic, get one of his other personalities to tutor him.
Women’s Interest—When Billie Jean beat Bobby…
I'm not sure about the last one being an issue for any woman under the age of 50. Even so, this language doesn't seem to "speak" to any of the patrons in our library.

One thing they have that's interesting is free access for library school students. Although I'm not sure why one would attend library school at a college that couldn't afford these databases. I don't think I'd give my money to a school whose only periodical subscription was Grit.

This Refworks product looks promising, though, for online collaboration and research management.

There are also customizable products to promote databases to students in academic libraries, but I think they're the same as the ones for the public library, they just add the word, Groovy after everything to appeal to the same hip college kids who cheered for Billie Jean King.