A c t i o n f o r L i b r a r i e s — M a r c h 2 0 0 3

OCLC Update

By Regan W. Harper

New: ILL Policies Directory
OCLC's new ILL Policies Directory will provide users of OCLC ILL with a central source for ILL policies, contacts, billing and system information. These new ILL features are expected to be available soon. The directory will be accessible from the ILL Web and ILLiad interfaces. It will not be accessible from the OCLC Passport interface.

This directory will replace the NAD (Name-Address Directory) for OCLC ILL users worldwide. It is expected to improve upon the NAD by providing enhanced delivery of formatted information as well as providing new policy information to members. The directory will be available in a Web environment and will offer screen tips and online help for users entering information about their institutions, collections and lending policies. Initially, OCLC will provide skeleton records for the new database with institutions' names, city/state/countries, affiliations and symbols.

OCLC will provide a six-month migration period for the transition from the NAD to the Policies Directory. At the end of that migration time, the NAD will be removed from ILL Web and be replaced by the ILL Policies Directory. BCR encourages users to enter information on their sites during the migration period. Product ordering that relies on the NAD for address information will remain in the NAD until migrated to other OCLC sources.

For more information, contact Ann Schwab (aschwab@bcr.org) at BCR.

Automatic IFM Report for All Participants
As of January, any library with ILL Fee Management (IFM) activity will automatically have a monthly IFM report generated. Institutions no longer need to sign up for these reports via the NAD (Name-Address Directory). The reports are posted to the Product Services Web on the first day of the month and are available for printing and downloading at no charge. If there is no report for the month for an institution, there is no IFM activity for that month. For more information, contact BCR's Ann Schwab.

New Sets in OCLC WorldCat Collection Sets WorldCat Collection Sets offers economical, pre-cataloged sets of electronic and microform records. By purchasing groups of existing records, libraries can increase user access to these collections and save time and money. New sets added to the service include:

Bibliothek der Deutschen Literatur: A microfiche set cataloged by Northwestern University Library.
Federal Judicial Center Publications: A microfiche set cataloged by Saint Louis University Law Library.
IEEE Xplore Standards: An electronic set cataloged by University of California, San Diego Library.
Knovel: Electronic sets (16) cataloged by Knovel Corporation.
Krause Curriculum Development Library: An electronic set cataloged by University of Wisconsin, Madison Library.
NetLibrary CliffsNotes: Classic Literature, General Reference and Modern Literature electronic sets cataloged by netLibrary.
Slavery, Source Material and Critical Literature: A microfiche set cataloged by multiple libraries.

For a complete listing of available record sets and additional information, see the WorldCat Collection Sets Web site at www.stats.oclc.org/wcs_list.html.

For more information, contact Regan W. Harper (rharper@bcr.org) at BCR.

February Connexion Enhancements
In February, OCLC installed enhancements to the OCLC Connexion service. Highlights include:

Record Display changes (Cataloging and Authorities) now provide more flexibility in how a record appears, improve record navigation and provide a clearer presentation of the data.
Diacritics enhancements provide more consistent entry into local systems and make it no longer necessary to use bar syntax.

Important: These changes do not affect record export. Records are exported in the same format as in the past.
Constant Data enhancements provide more flexibility and functionality for cataloging in all formats.
Controlling Heading enhancements make controlling headings and Dewey numbers faster and more efficient.
Updated Preferences enhancements have revised all Options screens to make the set-up process smoother and more understandable.

For more details about these enhancements, as well as information about the Connexion service, contact Regan Harper (rharper@bcr.org) at BCR.

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