Document (#5294)

Author

Bénaud, C.-L.
Bordeianu, S.

Title

OCLC's FirstSearch : a reference tool still evolving

Source

Reference services review. 21(1993) no.2, S.7-16

Year

1993

Abstract

OCLC entered the 1990s with a bold marketing move, signalling its expansion beyond the traditional library world and into the competitive end-user market, with the introduction of FirstSearch. In the spring of 1991, 16 libraries throughout the United States, among them the Univ. of New Mexiko General Library, became test sites. FirstSearch was officially released in Oct. 1991. It provides access to WorldCat, the OCLC Online Union Catalog, as well as selected periodical databases. In this article, the authors examine FirstSearch's powerful search capabilities, its user-friendliness, its depth of indexing, its library holdings symbols, and its innovative pricing structure. Further, they analyze how FirstSearch fares in the competitive world of end-user services against the already established systems offered by Dialog, BRS and CARL

Object

FirstSearch

Similar documents (content)

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3. Benefiel, C.R.; Smith, S.: FirstSearch: a survey of end-users (1991) 0.44

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4. Perry, S.; Salisbury, L.: ¬The ten most effective ways to search WorldCat on FirstSearch (1996) 0.38

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5. Ballard, T.: Using FirstSearch in a bibliographic construction (1993) 0.36

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