CHEST to offer unlimited FirstSearch access to the UK higher education community

Citation

(1999), "CHEST to offer unlimited FirstSearch access to the UK higher education community", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 27 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.1999.12227aab.013

CHEST to offer unlimited FirstSearch access to the UK higher education community

CHEST to offer unlimited FirstSearch access to the UK higher education community

Keywords Co-operation, Databases, Higher education, OCLC, UK

CHEST will offer new OCLC FirstSearch service packages to the UK higher education community under a five-year agreement which began on 1 September 1998.

Under an existing agreement, which expires in February 1999, 34 UK higher education institutions can access a range of FirstSearch subscription packages and additional FirstSearch databases. This new agreement will provide a more flexible range of options to the more than 70 databases available, including an option that guarantees unlimited access to authorised sites.

"Based on the experiences of the existing agreement, OCLC and CHEST have been able to identify packages that will provide greater choice and pricing options to UK academic libraries of all sizes", said Janet Mitchell Lees, Managing Director, OCLC Europe. "We especially wanted to find options that would appeal to smaller colleges that may be only just beginning to provide end-user searching to their users. The timing of the new agreement will allow existing sites the option of transferring to the new unlimited access arrangements before the traditional usage peak at the beginning of term."

The OCLC FirstSearch service is designed for people who use libraries and requires no training or online search experience. FirstSearch provides access to more than 70 databases, including OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online and more than a dozen full-text databases.

CHEST acts as a focal point for the supply of software, data, information, training materials and other information-technology related products to the higher and further education sectors. It is a non-profit organisation within, and part of, UK higher education, based at the Universities of Bath and Southampton.

Source: press release