OCLC Asia Pacific Services What's New

Announcements

• OCLC Internet List Subscription Request Form
• Databases (and Titles) Available on FirstSearch
• Get a quick start on your e-journal collection with the Print Subscribers Program
• OCLC Discontinuing ContentsAlert Service
• OCLC EPIC/FirstSearch Integration
• Asia Pacific Services Union List Group

Get a quick start on your e-journal collection with the Print Subscribers Program

Click here for details.

OCLC Contents Alert Service

The OCLC ContentsAlert service will not be available after June 30, 1999. OCLC is discontinuing this service because ContentsAlert is no longer meeting OCLC's chartered objective of reducing information costs. The service's low usage rate combined with the cost of programming required for year 2000 compliance have made ContentsAlert too expensive to operate and maintain.

Note that the information provided through the ContentsAlert service is available from the ContentsFirst database on the OCLC FirstSearch service. The ContentsFirst database offers complete table of contents page(s) and holdings information for journals in many fields. The database dates from 1990 to the present and is updated daily. You may view a complete list of all available titles on the World Wide Web at
< http://www.oclc.org/oclc/man/serialslist/toc.htm >

OCLC EPIC/FirstSearch Integration

OCLC will integrate the OCLC EPIC service into the OCLC FirstSearch service by July 1999. When these two services are merged, the EPIC service will no longer be available. The EPIC/FirstSearch integration will offer many of the same benefits as the EPIC service. The FirstSearch/EPIC integration offers:

• Graphical user interface. In addition to being available via a text-based interface, FirstSearch is accessible using popular World Wide Web browsers.

• Access to the same quality of information. FirstSearch offers essentially the same databases, including WorldCat, the OCLC Online Union Catalog, which is the most consulted database in higher education.

• Similar searching and retrieval power. Most EPIC functionality will be integrated into the FirstSearch service by July 1999.
  (Note: Current EPIC users are encouraged to participate in an online EPIC user survey. Based on users’ feedback, OCLC will consider which functionality is most important to EPIC users. If you have any special requests or concerns, please let us know.)

• E-mail capabilities for citations and full text. FirstSearch enables you to e-mail via the Internet retrieved record sets and full text articles.

• More online articles available. FirstSearch provides links to eight full text databases, providing you with more than one million articles online.

• Document ordering and interlibrary loan. In addition to online full text articles, FirstSearch provides document delivery for many articles via one-hour fax, overnight courier, regular mail, or OCLC Interlibrary Loan.

• Integration with OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online. FirstSearch also is being integrated with Electronic Collections Online, a new electronic journal service that provides Web access to a large collection of scholarly journals. Ultimately, FirstSearch will provide libraries and library users with one online reference system that covers a full range of information formats and sources with powerful searching and browsing capabilities.

Asia Pacific Services Union List Group

OCLC Cataloging service and ILL service users in Asia and the Pacific region that wish to list their detailed serial holdings in the WorldCat (the OCLC Online Union Catalog) for the purpose of resource sharing, are encouraged to join the Asia Pacific Services Union List Group.

For More Information

For more information contact:

OCLC Asia Pacific Services
6565 Frantz Road
Dublin, OH 43017-3395 USA

Telephone: +1-614-764-6189
Fax: +1-614-764-4331
E-mail: asia_pacific_services@oclc.org

See also the list of OCLC Asia Pacific Services distributors.

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