From your OCLC Users' Council Delegates:
Lee Hadden Bernard Strong Marcia Talley
[log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]
ph: 703-648-6088 ph: 202-287-9463 ph: 410-293-6905
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Andrea Keyhani +1-614-764-6474
[log in to unmask]
Nita Dean +1-614-761-5002
[log in to unmask]
FIRST GROUP OF PUBLISHING PARTNERS ANNOUNCED
FOR NEW OCLC FIRSTSEARCH ELECTRONIC COLLECTIONS ONLINE
DUBLIN, Ohio, Nov. 25, 1996 Nine publishers have agreed to offer more than
260 journals electronically to libraries through OCLC FirstSearch Electronic
Collections Online, a new OCLC reference service scheduled to be released in
the second quarter of 1997.
Adis International; Blackwell Science Ltd.; Chapman & Hall, North America;
Current Science Ltd.; the Institution of Mechanical Engineers; MIT Press;
the Royal Society of Chemistry; and Sigma Theta Tau International have
signed contracts to offer journals electronically through Electronic
Collections Online. Thomson Science and Professional Publishers, which
includes Chapman & Hall Ltd. and Rapid Science, has announced its intent to
participate. Additional content agreements are expected in the coming
months.
OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online enables libraries to
subscribe to large collections of academic journals, from many publishers in
a discipline, and access them remotely through a single World Wide Web
interface that supports cross-journal searching and extensive browsing.
"FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online is one of the first online
systems to address the key issues necessary to make the transition from
paper to electronic journals," said Rick Noble, vice president, OCLC
Reference Services. "The system can accommodate thousands of journals, and
libraries can choose the journals they want to include in their electronic
collection. Journals will be loaded in their entirety, on or before their
publication date. OCLC will also provide libraries with ongoing access to
an archive of the journals they have subscribed to."
A pioneer in electronic scholarly publishing, OCLC launched the world*s
first peer-reviewed online medical journal, the Online Journal of CURRENT
CLINICAL TRIALS, in July 1992. With FirstSearch Electronic Collections
Online, OCLC is building on its experience in electronic publishing to
provide libraries with a cost-effective way to access, archive and manage
large collections of electronic journals.
Libraries using Electronic Collections Online will subscribe to journals
directly with publishers or subscription agents and access them remotely
through the World Wide Web at OCLC*s headquarters in Dublin, Ohio.
End users of Electronic Collections Online will be able to search, browse
for and display article citations for all the journals available through the
service and display abstracts or complete articles for journals their
library subscribes to. Users can browse lists of journals, selected issues
or a selected topic area.
Electronic Collections Online combines the cost benefits associated with
remote access to data with the advantages of local collection management.
It will reduce information costs for libraries by centralizing storage and
access. This will enable libraries to share the cost of loading, archiving
and providing access to their electronic journal collections. In addition,
Electronic Collections Online offers libraries a number of value-added
features, including print-quality article representation, usage statistics,
technology migration, and technical and product support.
Graeme Avery, president and publisher of Adis International, said of the
agreement: "This is an extremely important step for Adis. We have been
looking at a number of ways to provide subscribing institutions the option
of accessing content electronically. Being able to deliver information
directly to researchers and practitioners at their workstations, when they
need it, is critical to the future success of scholarly publishing. OCLC
gives us this flexibility while ensuring that the important relationship
between subscribing institution and publisher remains unchanged."
"We are very excited at the prospect of offering our journals online through
OCLC*s ECO service," said Robert Campbell, managing director, Blackwell
Science Ltd. "Our vision of the future is one in which we set the price for
our material and then offer it to our customers through a small range of
carefully chosen providers. OCLC*s approach is entirely consistent with
this, and by collaborating with them, we will have rapid exposure to a
worldwide range of library users."
"The delivery of Current Clinical Trials on the Web is in keeping with our
vision to be the information provider of choice in the scientific
community," said Dean Smith, publisher, Chapman & Hall, North America.
"As the first biology publisher to have all its journals accessible online,
we are delighted that OCLC, with its great expertise, will be able to
deliver them to the major libraries," said Peter Newmark, managing director,
Current Biology Ltd., part of Current Science Ltd.
"The journals of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers have an
international reputation for excellence," said Jamie Cameron, director of
Publishing & Information Systems, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
"The IMechE is one of the foremost engineering societies in the world, and
their journals are regarded as core material in any engineering collection.
We are delighted to collaborate with OCLC in order to provide an electronic
version of these important journals to the international engineering
community."
"MIT Press is delighted to be working with OCLC to provide access to the
electronic versions of its important collection of economics journals," said
Janet Fisher, associate director for journals, MIT Press. "We believe this
will make the journal content more accessible and useful for our
subscribers."
"The Royal Society of Chemistry is very happy to be involved with OCLC in
their project to create a global electronic library, FirstSearch Electronic
Collections Online," said Mike Hannant, publisher, Electronic Journals and
Internet Services, RSC. "User needs will be well served by faster and
easier access to the RSC*s high-quality journals material via this service."
"We are pleased to be associated with this exciting new service development
from OCLC," said Michael Dixon, managing director, Thomson Science Europe.
"This service offers subscribers and customers, both new and existing, a
valuable additional channel to access electronic versions of our journals.
We look forward to collaborating with OCLC to develop this service, and we
intend to make all of our online journals available through them in due
course."
Adis International is a medical publisher and database provider specializing
in strategic healthcare communications and intelligence systems for global
drug development and disease management. Adis International publishes over
50 regular publications and services in both print and electronic formats.
Blackwell Science Ltd. is one of the world*s leading scientific, technical
and medical publishers. Blackwell Science publishes over 300 books and 200
journals per year in four languages and a rapidly growing list of electronic
products. The company publishes journals on behalf of more than 180
societies world wide.
A member of the Current Science Group, Current Biology Ltd. publishes
research journals, review journals, books and databases across the full
spectrum of the biological sciences. Since its formation in 1990, Current
Biology Ltd. has consistently been at the forefront of publishing
innovation, with a mission to make the scientific literature more efficient,
accessible and informative.
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is one of the foremost publishers of
engineering information in the world. The IMechE publishes 10 highly
respected journals under the Proceedings series, which covers a broad range
of subjects from rapid transit to medicine. IMechE journals are valued for
their scholarship and multidisciplinary approach.
MIT Press is one of the largest university presses, publishing 180 new books
per year and 39 journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
Its program is focused on the disciplines of economics, cognitive science,
linguistics, neuroscience, art and architecture, and environmental studies.
The Royal Society of Chemistry is a learned society with a worldwide
membership of 46,000. Its main objectives are the advancement of the
science of chemistry and its applications, and the maintenance of high
standards of competence and integrity among practicing chemists. The RSC
markets a comprehensive range of high-quality information products and
services, and surplus from sales is used to fund the promotion of chemistry.
The society also provides a forum for chemists to exchange ideas and
results, and encourages collaboration on new ventures.
Sigma Theta Tau International, Honor Society of Nursing is a professional
organization of 200,000 committed to fostering scholarship, excellence and
leadership in nursing, and to improving the health of people worldwide by
increasing the scientific base of nursing practice.
Thomson Science and Professional Publishers includes the imprints Chapman &
Hall and Rapid Science Publishers, VNR and EF & N Spon. Thomson Science and
Professional Publishers is a subsidiary of The Thomson Corporation, a global
media and leisure travel corporation that includes over 250 individual
businesses with over 50,000 employees worldwide.
OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit computer library service
and research organization whose computer network and services link more than
23,000 libraries in 63 countries and territories. More information is
available at the OCLC Web site
[http://www.oclc.org/]. (ALL)
-0-
|