ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


4 6 4  /  C&RL N ew s

that Su: searches target references from the title, 
subject, and series field results in retrieving ir­
relevant records. Further, end users do not have 
access to thesaurus and subject headings lists 
and therefore w ould expect the w ord list to be 
much more comprehensive. The online help 
screens n eed  to be transparent to users for im­
portant search concepts. End users should be 
provided with one definitive m ethod of search­
ing a field w hich w ould result in retrieval of 
relevant references.

Conclusion
FirstSearch offers an inexpensive and attrac­
tive service. It has very good potential as an 
end-user resource but attention needs to be

directed towards improving the searching char­
cteristics and its method of viewing/printing/ 
ownloading. With the availability o f WorldCat, 
IOSIS/FS, and the Wilson databases at a very 
ffordable pricing policy, together with loca­
ion symbols to aid in docum ent delivery, this 
ervice could very well be the answer to many 
f our patrons’ information problems.

' “Why Use DB23 on EPIC W hen We Have 
C MARC?” OCLC Reference News (January/Feb- 
uary 1992): p. 7.

2L u tish o o r S alisb u ry  a n d  U sha G u p ta, 
irstSearch: Potential a n d  Search Characteris­

tics (Submitted for publication, 1992), p. 3.
’’Dialog Database Catalog 1991, p. 40. ■

a
d
B
a
t
s
o

L
r

F

UC trie s FirstSearch
OCLC offered free public access to its 

FirstSearch service to the Davis, Irvine, Los 
Angeles, and San Diego campuses of the Uni­
versity o f California (UC) during February 
1992. FirstSearch w as made available to li­
brary users without additional equipm ent by 
p ro v id in g  an INTERNET c o n n e c tio n  to 
FirstSearch via the MELVYL Library System. 
The ten-year-old MELVYL is a shared UC in­
formation system and includes the nine-cam­
pus union catalog, six article databases, and 
automatic INTERNET connections to about 
30 library information systems worldwide.

Starting the second w eek  o f February, 
public access was offered to the four cam­
p uses as a m enu choice through the UC 
MELVYL Library System. Remote or modem 
access' was provided to selected users and 
OCLC provided stacks of coupons, good for 
ten searches, to distribute to UC users w ho 
w anted to have dial-up access from homes, 
offices, or dormitory rooms.

Librarians from the four campuses held a 
brief meeting on April 1 and shared the fol­
lowing observations. Although the librarians 
w ere concerned that one month w as not suf­
ficient time to evaluate a multiple database 
system such as FirstSearch, users w ere en ­
thusiastic. They liked the menu-driven sys­
tem with excellent help screens; most people 
w ere able to find something on the first try. 
Some faculty found the menu-driven system

frustrating and w ere annoyed with the soft­
ware barrier that prohibits the continuous 
printing or downloading of records. Con­
nections w ere not always stable and during 
peak loads remote users reported being fre­
quently dropped. There was little or no im­
pact on staff at public service desks. The 
staff liked the ability to control w hich data­
bases are available to users. For example, if 
ERIC was available in the library as a CD- 
ROM, access to ERIC FirstSearch could be 
blocked.

During the February trial period 8,099 
searches were perform ed on the 14 data­
b a s e s  o n  F irstS earch, as c o m p a re d  to  
1 ,5 6 4 ,2 7 4  MELVYL c a ta lo g  s e a r c h e s . 
WorldCat was the most frequently selected 
database with 3,511 searches. Some librar­
ians thought this was because WorldCat was 
the first choice on the menu in all the sub­
ject categories. The article databases w ere 
searched 4,588 times and all files show ed 
som e use. Among th e article databases, 
BIOSIS was the most popular followed by 
News, H um anities Index, Periodical Ab­
stracts, and PAIS.

FirstSearch was a success and worth con­
sideration for librarians w ho are looking for 
ways to increase access to the journal literature 
without local tapeloading.—James E. Crooks, 
data services coordinator, University o f  Cali­
fornia, Irvine; bitnet: JECROOKS@UCI ■