OCLC Update

By Rosario Garza

OCLC to Discontinue Workstation Sales

OCLC has announced that it will stop selling workstations and add-on products June 30. This decision was made because of the decline in the number of workstations that libraries are purchasing from OCLC. If you are interested in purchasing a workstation from OCLC, your order must reach BCR by May 7. No orders for workstations or add-on products will be accepted after that date. If you have questions about purchasing an OCLC workstation, contact BCR's Regan Harper.

OCLC ILL Full Text Option Now Available

In 1998, OCLC's resource sharing staff surveyed ILL-L users about the use of suppliers of full-text electronic documents for ILL. Users reported they would like to have more options for document delivery, but that ordering full-text electronic documents was a poor fit with current OCLC ILL work flow. They told OCLC they would like to use full-text suppliers because they are fast, inexpensive and royalties are covered. But users also said they didn't know which suppliers had what materials or when their coverage started. They also needed to have ordering fit into their work flow. Based on these requests, OCLC staff designed a new service: OCLC ILL Full Text Option.

Full Text Option extends the document supply choices available to ILL staff to include electronic delivery. This new service allows library staff to order documents from electronic suppliers as a seamless part of the OCLC ILL workflow. Users search for bib records, display holdings and create requests as they do now. Full text suppliers have holdings set and create union list data. Users should look for locations code $$. When a user includes an electronic supplier symbol in the lender string, the system will check the request for:

ISSN
Year of the article
:ARTICLE:
:MAXCOST: for high enough value and IFM
:E-MAIL:
If all elements are there, the system searches the document supplier, retrieves the article and mails it to the address in :E-MAIL:. The request is updated to SHIPPED, and :LENDING CHARGES: are updated for the cost of the article and ILL Fee Management. If all elements are not included or if the article is not found, the system advances the request to the next symbol in the string. It's just like normal ILL and normal ILL Fee Management because it is normal ILL and normal IFM. Like Custom Holdings and ILL Fee Management, Full Text Option is a feature within the OCLC ILL system available to all libraries whenever users want to use it. There is nothing to sign up for or fill out. To learn more about Full Text Option see Technical Bulletin 229 available through the OCLC web site URL: www.oclc.org/oclc/tb/tb229/ frames_man.htm. If you have questions about Full Text Option, contact BCR's Bonnie Robinson.

BLDSC Urgent Action Service Available to OCLC ILL Users

British Library Document Supply Centre's (BLDSC) Urgent Action Service will soon be available to OCLC Interlibrary Loan service users. With this service, requests for documents will be processed within three hours of receipt through the OCLC ILL service. The material will then be sent by fax, Ariel, courier or first-class mail. The new rush service is currently available to a small group of U.S. libraries on a trial basis. It is expected to be released to all OCLC ILL service users in April. The Urgent Action Service is initiated by entering the symbol B#R in the lender string after searching for an item and going to the BLDSC. The service is billed in units, with each unit equaling approximately $9. Users must set up a deposit account with a minimum of 20 units. Additional information on the service and pricing is available at www.bl.uk/services/bsds/dsc/urgent.html. BCR's contract with the BLDSC allows BCR member libraries to be billed for BLDSC use through BCR. If you are interested in registering with BLDSC, contact Bonnie Robinson at BCR for a packet of information.