Encyclopædia Britannica Online
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. has added a new reference source to the Britannica Online
service. The Encyclopædia Britannica Intermediate, created for students in grades five
and higher, complements the information from the Encyclopædia Britannica itself and
provides additional features valuable for upper elementary schools, middle schools,
public libraries and community colleges and universities offering degrees in education.
A few of the new features include:
- More than 38,000 articles and 4,200 illustrations, drawings, maps, flags, graphics
with easy-to-understand articles written for grades five and higher.
- Easy-to-use "Not sure of your spelling?" feature for spell checking.
- Spotlights Special editorial features provide in- depth, multimedia-rich tours
through selected topics.
- Search Results a list of 10 hits or matches that result from your keyword
search with links to the top of the article.
- Caption Pages Thumbnail images within articles that link to full-size images
of photos and maps with captions or descriptions. Copyright information is also
included.
For information regarding subscriptions, including extending a current subscription or
becoming a new member, contact Jim Hensinger (jhensing@bcr.org).
SilverPlatter Information SilverLinker Update
SilverPlatter has added several new features and enhancements to its SilverLinker
technology which allow users to integrate bibliographic references with the
corresponding full text. Enhancements include:
- Filtering by journal title.
- Links to a broader variety of electronic providers.
- Links to select local collections.
- The availability of the service on Internet and Partner Hosted Servers.
The new features will simplify administration of the SilverLinker technologies and give
librarians complete control over collection decisions. Libraries will be able to link
selected local collections of electronic journals as well as link to publishers' Web sites.
SilverLinker contains more than 4,000 unique journal titles and nearly one million unique
articles. The SilverPlatter Web site () contains up-to-date lists of
the SilverLinker databases, along with the newest information on SilverLinker electronic
journal providers (www.silverplatter.com/silverlinker/slpubs.htm).
SilverPlatter and Elseiver Partnership
SilverPlatter has contracted with Elseiver to provide links to scientific e-journals
available only through Science Direct. Links to this database will be available following
the release of SilverLinker enhancements.
SilverPlatter Products Discontinued
The Foods Intelligence and RecPark databases are no longer available.
FirstSearch News
OCLC has updated the FirstSearch Usage Statistics Online () screen
displays to reflect the appearance of the New OCLC FirstSearch service. The "New
FirstSearchMigration Schedule: Frequently Asked Questions," has been revised to
include current information about the status of the New FirstSearch service. See
www.oclc.org/oclc/fs_new/migration_faq.htm.
"OCLC FirstSearch Database Update Status Report" has been added to the New
FirstSearch Web page at www.oclc.org/oclc/fs/en/status.htm. Users can now access
information regarding the status of FirstSearch. OCLC will revise the report three times
each week.
OCLC has temporarily set the session timeout for all Web users of the New FirstSearch
service to five minutes as OCLC staff continues to work on resolving performance issues.
This change does not affect any full-text timeouts that are set in the administrative
module and, when discontinued by OCLC, all session timeouts will revert to the original
administrative module settings. Z39.50 users are not affected by this temporary change.
OCLC and the Gale Group will discontinue per-search access to the Health Reference
Center and the Health Reference Center-Academic databases on both the current and new
OCLC FirstSearch services on April 1. Current per-search users will want to consider
subscribing instead. For more information, contact Karen Graham (kgraham@bcr.org) .
OCLC WorldCat Collection Sets
OCLC has enhanced its WorldCat Collection Sets (formerly known as the OCLC Major
Microform Service) so that users are now able to catalog records representing electronic
databases and access records through the OCLC Cataloging service. They may also
download records into their local online public access catalog. CORC (OCLC's
Cooperative Online Resource Catalog) project participants will have access to these records
as well. Catalog cards are no longer available for WorldCat Collection Sets.
Cataloging records for netLibrary, Project Muse, Academic Press IDEAL, JSTOR,
Kluwer, Documenting the American South and Elsevier are now available through
WorldCat Collection Sets. Springer, Wiley, MCB Press, Royal Society of Chemists,
Institute of Physics and American Physical Society will be included in the near future.
OCLC libraries will find increased options for processing cataloging records, particularly
in field 856 (Electronic Location and Access), along with more flexibility in the deletion
and addition of other fields. Increased user access and lower cost by way of reduced staff
involvement to catalog records are both valuable by-products of this enhancement.
H.W. Wilson News
The H.W. Wilson Company has added more than 25,000 biographies to its Wilson
Biographies Plus Illustrated database. These enhancements include profiles featuring
black men and women, figures from the world of art, women, international headliners
and notables in other categories. The database now offers users more than 72,000
profiles of persons along with links to full-text articles, article abstracts, index citations
from Wilson bibliographic databases and more than 26,000 images. H.W. Wilson
anticipates adding more than 1,000 profiles annually and adding links to information on
the Web.
For questions or to subscribe to any reference database CD-ROM, online or Internet-
accessible contact BCR's Jim Hensinger (jhensing@bcr.org) or Karen Graham
(kgraham@bcr.org).