A c t i o n f o r L i b r a r i e s — F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 2

In Reference...

By Brandie Baumann

H.W. Wilson News
H.W. Wilson's Education Full Text database has been expanded to 527 periodicals, making it an even more useful resource for administrators, educators and students. A total of 239 journals are available in full text and hundreds of photos, charts, graphs, diagrams and other valuable graphical information are provided.

Wilson has announced it is discontinuing the DOS version of its databases. Libraries that currently use the DOS version will need to switch to the Windows version by March 2002. Library staff should contact Karen Graham (kgraham@bcr.org) as soon as possible if they wish to continue their libraries' subscriptions using the Windows version.

OCLC FirstSearch Service Update
OCLC recently completed several enhancements to the OCLC FirstSearch service. These include:

Customization of library holdings limits in the WorldCat database — Users will find changes to the Items in My Library limit option and a new customizable library group option.

The addition of 68 new journals to OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online — There are now 3,747 journals available online. New titles include content from new publishers Imprint Academic and Indiana University Press. See www2.oclc.org/oclc/fseco/publish.htm for additional information about these new titles.

Interlibrary Loan via e-mail — The FirstSearch administrative module has been enhanced to allow access to interlibrary loan via e-mail in FirstSearch. This allows libraries to let patrons request an item through interlibrary loan in FirstSearch and have the ILL request formatted as an e-mail for review by library staff. Libraries that do not currently use the OCLC ILL service can now use the e-mail option of FirstSearch to create interlibrary loan messages.

Information about these new features is provided in the online Help for the FirstSearch administrative module and has been added to the FirstSearch Administrative Module Reference Guide at www.oclc.org/firstsearch/documentation/adminref/. Contact Karen Graham at BCR (kgraham@bcr.org) to subscribe to any FirstSearch database or with questions or problems.

SilverPlatter Redesigns WebSPIRS
SilverPlatter's WebSPIRS 5.0 software has a number of new features including an improved search interface, improved navigation and faster performance. A free demo is available at the SilverPlatter Web site (www.silverplatter.com/webspirs5/index.html) as well as further information about the numerous enhancements to the WebSPIRS software interface.

For questions or to subscribe to any reference database, contact BCR's Jim Hensinger (jhensing@bcr.org) or Karen Graham (kgraham@bcr.org).

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