Compares OCLC's competitively priced online search services--EPIC, designed for librarians and experienced searchers, and FirstSearch, designed for end-users. Discussed are databases offered, ease of searching, holdings information, training needs, and pricing. Appendices of available databases and indexes for each service are included. (four…

Includes four articles that discuss multimedia educational database systems and the use of metadata, including repurposing; the evaluation of digital library use that analyzes the retrieval habits of users; the Kentucky Virtual Library (KYVL) and digital collection project; and the collection of the Division of Parasitic Diseases, Centers for…

Since its establishment in 1960, the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia has had responsibility for documenting Saudi administrative literature, the official publications of Saudi Arabia, and the literature of regional and international organizations through establishment of the Document Center in 1961. This paper…

Review of the 1991 literature on subject access in online systems discusses users and subject searching; subject access in online catalogs, including improvement of the database, search processing, the user interface, and user understanding; subject cataloging and indexing; information retrieval; thesaurus and indexing approaches; classification;…

Examines factors to consider when selecting materials to be digitized: copyrights; intellectual nature of the source materials; current and potential users; actual and anticipated nature of use; format and nature of the digital product; describing, delivering, and retaining the digital product; relationships to other digital efforts; and costs and…

The development of CD-ROM following early computers and powerful personal computers will affect information retrieval by its accessibility and large storage capacity. Users will demand specific information and data sets from libraries, which could provide large research capacities. Librarians will act as database managers, thus enhancing their…

Different kinds of pictorial databases are described with respect to aims, user groups, search possibilities, storage, and distribution. Some specific examples are given for databases used for the following purposes: (1) labor markets for artists; (2) document management; (3) telling a story; (4) preservation (archives and museums); (5) research;…

Discussion of the present condition of Peruvian academic libraries from firsthand observation includes descriptions of reference, orientation, and publication services; funding; collections; library use; and librarianship. The vast differences in traditions, resources, and information needs of this developing country and those of industrialized…

Provides an overview of the basic components of a digital library. Highlights include library collections; metadata; services, including information seeking and retrieval, reference query fulfillment, and user training; user interaction with digital libraries, including searching, browsing, and navigation; economic support; maintenance;…

This guide begins by describing the OCLC database, including ways in which it is used by librarians and library patrons; countries reached by OCLC; programs intended to enrich the database, e.g. retrospective conversion projects; cataloging formats (books, serials, sound recordings, musical scores, audiovisual media, maps, archives and…

Provides statistics and analysis of librarian's compiled reference questions and bibliographic tools used to answer them, including 26,000 monographs and 2,700 serials titles. Despite the lack of certain resources, the librarian is usually able to find the needed information through knowledge of the collection and resourcefulness. (CDD)

This paper investigates the need for electronic provision of information, and advises that the purpose and motivation for providing electronic resources be explored before embarking on a project to provide them. Many projects at universities and other institutes have been begun arbitrarily just because there happened to be financial resources…

A distributed union catalog is a network of bibliographic systems that cooperate to enable their users to discover sites that hold copies of known items. Some participating systems will be traditional union catalogs, others will be single sites with comprehensive collections, and others will be local or regional resource sharing systems. A…

The evolution of scholarly publishing is a good illustration of recent changes in technology. Many organizations are developing and operating electronic publishing systems that will change the way scholars, scientists, and technical professionals access information. Scholars obtain access to periodical literature in their fields through journal…