From your 1997-98 OCLC Users' Council Delegates:
Benard Strong Marcia Talley
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ph: 202-287-9463 ph: 410-293-6905
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
> FOR MORE INFORMATION:
> Nita Dean +1-614-761-5002
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>
> OCLC Reference Services Availability Expanded
>
> DUBLIN, Ohio, May 19, 1998--The OCLC FirstSearch service, one of the
> library community's fastest growing information systems, and OCLC
> FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online, which provides Web access
> to
> a growing collection of more than 1,200 electronic journals, are now
> available 24 hours a day, Monday through Saturday. Both services will
> continue to be available 20 hours on Sundays, cutting weekly downtime
> to
> four hours--between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time. The new
> schedule provides six additional hours a week of access, which will
> benefit library users worldwide.
>
> "Since FirstSearch's 1991 introduction, we have been extending its
> accessibility to meet the needs of remote-access users--who often
> access
> the service long after their libraries close--as well as libraries and
> their users in different time zones around the world," said John
> Sullivan, director, OCLC Online Reference Services. "With distance
> and
> life-long learning initiatives on the rise, and more and more use of
> FirstSearch by libraries all over the world, we are now working toward
> the next step--providing round-the-clock availability seven days a
> week."
>
> The OCLC FirstSearch service is designed for people who use libraries
> and requires no training or online search experience. FirstSearch
> provides access to more than 70 databases, including OCLC FirstSearch
> Electronic Collections Online and more than a dozen full-text
> databases.
> FirstSearch also links to OCLC's Interlibrary Loan service and can be
> used via the World Wide Web or a text-based interface. More
> information
> about FirstSearch, including a guided tour, can be found at
> <http://www.oclc.org/oclc/menu/fs.htm>.
>
> Electronic Collections Online allows libraries to search across
> hundreds
> of journals from many different publishers, using a single interface
> and
> access point. Titles are available in many different subject areas,
> including life and physical science, social science and the
> humanities.
> More information about Electronic Collections Online, including a list
> of available journals, can be found at
> <http://www.oclc.org/oclc/menu/eco.htm>.
>
> Hours for the OCLC EPIC service are unchanged. OCLC has announced
> plans
> to integrate EPIC with the FirstSearch service by July 1999.
>
> OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, international,
> membership, computer library service and research organization whose
> computer network and services link more than 26,000 libraries in 64
> countries and territories <http://www.oclc.org/>. (ND)
> -0-
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