Apologies for cross-posting

 

England’s 149 public library authorities are set to save both time and money with the launch of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council’s (MLA) new service, Reference Online. As part of the Reference Online agreement, OCLC PICA will provide access to the WorldCat and ArticleFirst databases delivered through OCLC’s FirstSearch service.

 

In the first initiative of its kind in England, Reference Online http://www.mla.gov.uk/webdav/harmonise?Page/@id=73&Section[@stateId_eq_selected]/@id=4960&Section[@stateId_eq_left_hand_root]/@id=4332 provides library managers with easy access to 26 electronic subscription based products, including directories, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, newspapers and business information. MLA has brokered deals with 14 separate suppliers and potential cost efficiencies of over £1million could be achieved.

 

These cost savings will help make best use of library resources allowing investment in additional stock or services. Benefits to library users could also include access to a wider range of free online resources through their library cards, from wherever they choose to log on to their library website.

 

MLA Head of Library Policy John Dolan explains: “In order for public libraries to streamline and improve services, collaboration is essential. This national offer, Reference Online is just one of the ways that MLA is supporting libraries in becoming better businesses and helping to transform libraries for the 21st century. Making the most of this fantastic opportunity will free up the time of library staff and release funds that can be spent on stock procurement.”

 

WorldCat, http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/ the world's largest bibliographic database is the merged catalogues of thousands of OCLC member libraries. Built and maintained collectively by librarians throughout the world, WorldCat provides the foundation for a number of other OCLC services and the many benefits they provide to library users. Library users in England can now directly access WorldCat's vast resources of 4,000 years of recorded history and quickly find what they need, when they want it.

 

ArticleFirst is OCLC's unique index of articles from the contents pages of journals (currently over 15.5 million records from 16,000 sources) and provides advanced access that allows users to identify and locate vital information required on any given topic with options to go further and obtain that crucial piece of knowledge. Subject areas included are business, science, humanities, social science, medicine, technology and popular culture.

 

FirstSearch  http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/  is OCLC’s online service that gives library professionals and end users access to a rich collection of reference databases. With FirstSearch, materials in library collections are highlighted in results from searches in dozens of leading databases.

 

Through their inclusion in Reference Online, WorldCat and ArticleFirst join an ever growing portfolio of OCLC PICA services used by English public library authorities, that includes LinkUK and The Combined Regions resource sharing networks; the CILLA subscription service (Co-operative of Indic Language Library Authorities); and in spring 2005, MLA funded the launch of Enquire as one of the People’s Network services. Enquire is a real-time virtual reference service built on the QuestionPoint platform supplied by OCLC PICA.

 

About OCLC PICA

 

OCLC PICA is the European library cooperative and offers an extensive range of leading edge and high-tech products and services for both library professionals and library end users. Thousands of patrons daily use the OCLC PICA systems for automatic cataloguing, retrieval, interlibrary loan and conservation. Thanks to those Library Management Systems, Professional Solutions and Library User Services, for example over 76 million books and websites can be found efficiently.

 

With its headquarters in Leiden (the Netherlands), subsidiaries in Oberhaching (Germany) and Sheffield (UK), and regional offices in Birmingham, Paris, Cologne, Berlin, Basel, Melbourne and Kansas City, OCLC PICA is active worldwide on behalf of its shareholders OCLC Inc and Stichting Pica. OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc is a non-profit organization and offers its services to 54,000 libraries in 109 countries and territories. More information about OCLC PICA can be found at www.oclcpica.org.

 

About the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA)

 

MLA is the national development agency for museums, libraries and archives, advising the government on policy and priorities for the sector. MLA's roles are to provide strategic leadership, to act as a powerful advocate, to develop capacity and to promote innovation and change. For more information, visit www.mla.gov.uk.

 

For more information please contact: Andrew Evans, Account Manager, OCLC PICA telephone: 0121 456 4656 email: [log in to unmask]