FirstSearch Databases in Brief

Comments? Abstract & revision notes PDF Connecting to a World of Information Keeping You Informed Summary of FirstSearch Database features FirstSearch Database Descriptions and Producers OCLC Databases and FirstSearch Databases by Topic Customizing FirstSearch Databases FirstSearch Documentation About OCLC OCLC Contacts FirstSearch Glossary

OCLC FirstSearch Service Databases in Brief

Connecting to a World of Information

The OCLC FirstSearch service provides access to a collection of databases supporting research in a wide range of subject areas. At the heart of FirstSearch is WorldCat®, containing more than 254 million records representing over 1.7 billion holding locations in libraries worldwide. WorldCat adds value to databases in FirstSearch by linking citations to holdings that helps users find these materials in their own libraries and through the WorldCat Resource Sharing service. You can also limit your searches to the collections of your own library or library group.

Keeping You Informed

Subscribe to the FirstSearch Internet distribution list in English, French, or Spanish to receive news about database changes and enhancements to the service.

Summary of FirstSearch Database Features

FirstSearch Database	Suggested Audience by Library Type (may include users, librarians, faculty, or staff)	Ordering Options	Links to Libraries that Own Item	Links to Local OPACs	Z39.50 Links to Holdings	Full Text Availability
FirstSearch Database		Ordering Options	Links to Libraries that Own Item	Links to Local OPACs	Z39.50 Links to Holdings	Via Other Databases	Via OCLC ILL Link	Via OpenURL Linking	Online Full Text
Anthropological Index	Academic	Subscription only	X	X	X	X	X	Outbound only
Anthropological Literature	Academic	Subscription only	X	X	X	X	X	Outbound only
Anthropology Plus	Academic	Subscription only	X	X	X	X	X	Outbound only
OCLC ArticleFirst®	Academic, Public	Subscription and Per-Search	X	X	X	X	X	Outbound only	JSTOR links
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals	Academic	Subscription only	X	X	X	X	X	Outbound only
Chicano Database	Academic, Public	Subscription only	X	X	X	X	X	Outbound only
Clase and Periódica	Academic, Public	Subscription and Per-Search	X	X	X	X	X	Outbound only
Electronic Books	Academic, Public, School	Subscription and Per-Search	X	X	X			Outbound only	Links to public domain and licensed e-books
Electronic Collections Online	Academic	Archive only subscription	X	X	X	X	X	Inbound Outbound	Articles (PDF), JSTOR links
ERIC--includes thesaurus	Academic, School	Subscription and Per-Search	X	X	X	Link to ERIC, X	X	Outbound only	ERIC Digest documents, JSTOR links
Facts on File Encyclopedia	Academic, Public, School	Subscription and Per-Search							Full entries with images (Hot links to some free full text)
FRANCIS	Academic, Public	Subscription only	X	X	X	X	X	Outbound only
GPO Monthly Catalog	Academic	Subscription and Per-Search	X	X	X		X	Outbound only
Heritage of the Printed Book	Academic	Subscription only
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine	Academic	Subscription only	X	X	X	X	X	Outbound only
Index to 19th-Century American Art Periodicals	Academic	Subscrption only					X	Outbound only
MEDLINE--includes thesaurus	Academic, Public	Subscription and Per-Search	X	X	X	X	X	Outbound only	JSTOR links
OAIster	Academic, Public	Subscription only							Hot links to some free full text and images
OCLC PapersFirst®	Academic, Public	Subscription and Per-Search					X	Outbound only
OCLC ProceedingsFirst®	Academic, Public, School	Subscription and Per-Search						Outbound only
Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies	Academic	Subscription only	X	X	X	X	X	Outbound only
SCIPIO	Academic, Public	Subscription only	X	X			X	Outbound only
WorldCat® (the OCLC Online Union Catalog)--includes thesaurus	Academic, Public, School	Subscription and Per-Search	X	X	X		X	Outbound only
WorldCat® Dissertations and Theses	Academic, Public, School	In U.S.: Subscription only, as part of OCLC Collection or OCLC Base Package. For regions outside the U.S., contact your regional service provider.	X	X			X	Outbound only	Links to public domain and licensed dissertations and theses

FirstSearch Database Descriptions and Producers (Indicating Full-text, Holdings and OCLC ILL Link Options)

Anthropological Index—Royal Anthropological Institute.

Coverage: 1957-present
Update Frequency: 8 to 12 times per year
No. of records and sources: 410,000+ records; 2,500+ journals

Indexes in the fields of physical anthropology, archaeology, cultural ethnography, and linguistics and draws on the collections of the de facto national anthropology library of Britain. Entries are compiled from journals held in the Anthropology Library of the British Museum.

Anthropological Literature—Harvard University, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Coverage: Early 19th Century to present
Update Frequency: Monthly
No. of records and sources: 600,000+ records; 4,370+ journals and other sources

Is the most comprehensive international resource for the fields of anthropology, archaeology, and related interdisciplinary research. Available online only from OCLC, Anthropological Literature indexes journals and monographic series held in the Harvard Library as well as open access e-journals. These include articles, reports, commentaries and obituaries.

Anthropology Plus—Harvard University, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the Royal Athropological Institute.

Coverage: Early 19th Century to present
Update Frequency: 8 to 12 times per year
No. of records and sources: 1 million+ records; 6,870+ sources

Is the world's most comprehensive, focused index of bibliographic materials from the late 1800s to today in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, and interdisciplinary studies. Available online only from OCLC, Anthropology Plus unites two premier indexes created in two hemispheres. Together, Harvard University's Anthropological Literature database and the Royal Anthropological Institute's Anthropological Index provide a uniquely broad and rich resource for education and research in anthropology and related fields.

OCLC ArticleFirst^®—OCLC

Coverage: Jan. 1990-present
Update Frequency: Daily
No. of records and sources: 31 million+ records; 16,000+ journals

Offers searching and browsing of articles and tables of contents from thousands of journals. Contains bibliographic citations that describe items listed on the table of contents pages of journals in science, technology, medicine, social science, business, the humanities, and popular culture. Each record describes one article, news story, letter, or other item.

Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals—J. Paul Getty Trust

Coverage: 1741-present
Update Frequency: Weekly
No. of records and sources: 660,000+ records; 4,600+ sources

Has been lauded as the single most important worldwide bibliographical research tool available worldwide for research in urban design, architecture, historic preservation, and urban planning history. The only comprehensive American guide to the current literature of architecture and design, the Avery Index now surveys US and foreign journals, three-fourths of which are not indexed in any other source.

Chicano Database —Ethnic Studies Library, University of California at Berkeley

Coverage: 1960s-present
Update Frequency: Quarterly
No. of records and sources: 60,000+ records; 2,470+ journals and other materials

Available only from OCLC, this is the most comprehensive bibliographic resource for information about Mexican-American topics and the only specialized database for Chicano reference. It identifies, in one place, all types of material about Chicanos and provides uniform subject access to this constantly growing body of literature.

Clase and Periódica —Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) Systems

Coverage: Clase 1975-present; Periódica 1978-present
Update Frequency: Quarterly
No. of records and sources: 660,000+ records; 2,700 journals

CLASE indexes documents published in Latin American and Caribbean journals specializing in social sciences and humanities. PERIÓDICA covers journals specializing in science and technology. CLASE and PERIÓDICA offer access to more than 550,000 citations from documents published in 2,700 selected scholarly journals in Spanish, Portugese, French, and English. They have become significant reference resources for those interested in what is published in or about Latin America.

Electronic Books (Ebooks)—OCLC

Coverage: All cataloged Ebooks to the present
Update Frequency: Daily
No. of records and sources: 15 million + books

Contains records on all subjects cataloged by OCLC member libraries. Citations link to full text licensed from e-publishers as well as to free electronic books available from educational, government and other websites. It also includes eTheses that are available online.

OCLC FirstSearch® Electronic Collections Online™—OCLC

Coverage: Varies by journal
Update Frequency: Archive only
No. of records and sources: 5.9 million+ records; 8,000+ journals

Access to journals in a variety of subject areas, all with full-image articles online. Articles from Electronic Collections Online journals are linked to corresponding citations in databases throughout the FirstSearch service. Archive only database.

ERIC —U. S. Department of Education

Coverage: 1966-present
Update Frequency: Monthly
No. of records and sources: 1.4 million+ records; 1,000+ journals and other materials

A guide to published and unpublished sources on thousands of educational topics. ERIC records include over 150,000 full-text documents at no extra charge. The database includes the ERIC thesaurus, a complete list of descriptive terms used by ERIC to index and search the database. From ERIC, users can link to the ERIC full-text content free-of-charge.

Facts on File Encyclopedia—Infobase Learning

Coverage: Current file
Update Frequency: Annually (encyclopedia updated quarterly)
No. of records and sources: 32,000+ records; complete work

Includes full text of Facts on File Encyclopedia, a comprehensive general encyclopedia; The World Almanac and Book of Facts, providing key facts on a wide variety of subjects internationally and The World Almanac for Kids, covering information and facts of interest to middle-school children and teachers.

FRANCIS—Institut de l'information Scientifique et Technique du Centre National du CNRS

Coverage: 1984-present
Update Frequency: Monthly
No. of records and sources: 2.6 million+ records; 4,300+ journals

Indexes multilingual, multidisciplinary information published in journals covering the humanities (67%), social sciences (30%), and economics (3%). Its breadth of subject areas and international scope complement many more narrowly focused databases, making FRANCIS an invaluable resource for research librarians.

GPO Monthly Catalog —U. S. Government Printing Office

Coverage: July 1976-present
Update Frequency: Monthly
No. of records: 600,000+ records

Consists of records published by the GPO since July 1976. Includes references for documents to congressional committee reports and hearings, debates, documents from executive departments, and more.

Heritage of the Printed Book —Consortium of European Research Libraries

Coverage: circa 1455-1830
Update Frequency: At least annually
No. of records and sources: 3.4 million+ records from 50+ national and university libraries in 16 countries

A unique and growing catalog of European printing in the early modern era (from the 15th century to the 1830s). Available online only from OCLC, this resource integrates descriptive records for major European national and university library holdings. It is especially valuable for research in intellectual history, social history, and transmission of thought —— as well as in the history of printing and the history of the book. It includes citations for works in more than 80 languages, including many European languages (medieval and modern) and classical Latin and Greek.

History of Science, Technology, and Medicine—Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Wellcome Library, History of Science Society & Society for the History of Technology

Coverage: 1975-present
Update Frequency: Monthly & annually
No. of records and sources: 300,000+ records; 9,500+ sources

Available only from OCLC, under the auspices of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science, this database integrates four premier tools to create the definitive international bibliography for the history of science, technology, and medicine, reflecting their influence on society and culture from prehistory to the present. Its value for interdisciplinary research is outstanding.

Index to 19th-Century American Art Periodicals—Mary M. Schmidt

Coverage: 1800-1899
Update Frequency: Static
No. of records and sources: 26,000+ records; 42 journals

Available only from OCLC, the Index to 19th-Century American Art Periodicals covers 42 periodicals published in the United States during the 19th century. This database is the sole online index to virtually all the art journals published in that period.

MEDLINE —U. S. National Library of Medicine

Coverage: 1950-present
Update Frequency: Daily
No. of records and sources: 20 million+ records; 19,000 sources

Covers all areas of medicine, including clinical medicine, experimental medicine, dentistry, nursing, health services administration, nutrition, and much more. Includes the MeSH thesaurus.

OAIster —OCLC

Update Frequency: Quarterly
No. of records and sources: 16 million+ records; 1,100+ data contributors

OAIster is a multidisciplinary database of records that represent digital resources from more than 1100 contributors worldwide. Typical collections include: theses, technical reports, research papers and image collections. Digital resources in OAIster include items such as digitized (i.e., scanned) books and articles, born-digital texts, audio files (e.g., wav, mp3), images (e.g., tiff, gif), movies (e.g., mp4, quicktime) and datasets (e.g., downloadable statistics files).

OCLC PapersFirst^®—OCLC

Coverage: 1993-present
Update Frequency: Biweekly
No. of records and sources: 8 million+ records; any conference, meeting or proceedings received by The British Library

Covers every congress, symposium, exposition, workshop, and meeting added to The British Library Document Supply Centre's (BLDSC) vast proceedings collection since October 1993. The BLDSC is a document supplier for the OCLC Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service.

OCLC ProceedingsFirst^®—OCLC

Coverage: 1993-present
Update Frequency: Biweekly
No. of records and sources: 450,000+ records; any conference, meeting or proceedings received by The British Library

Provides tables of contents of papers presented at conferences worldwide. Each record contains a list of the papers presented at each conference. Like its companion, PapersFirst, ProceedingsFirst provides access to The British Library Document Supply Centre's vast collection of conference proceedings.

Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies—INION The Russian Academy of Sciences

Coverage: 1980-present
Update Frequency: 2-3 times a year
No. of records and sources: 2.1 million+ records; 12,500 sources

Available online only as an OCLC database, the Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies INION database is a unique and rich source of information for students and specialists in Slavic studies and social sciences. Covering more than 12,500 periodicals published primarily in Russia, the republics of the former Soviet Union, and countries in Eastern Europe, it cites and abstracts books, manuscripts, dissertations, and articles.

SCIPIO—OCLC

Coverage: Catalogs from the late 16th century to scheduled auctions not yet held
Update Frequency: Daily
No. of records and sources: 431,000+ records

SCIPIO is a joint project of 25 different fine arts organizations, combining their art catalog collections in the only online list of auction catalogs in existence. It provides information to auction sales catalogs from all major North American and European auction houses as well as many private sales, giving valuable information on art objects, rare books, history of collecting, as well as contemporary and historical market trends. The records include the dates and places of sales, the auction houses, and sellers.

WorldCat^® (the OCLC Online Union Catalog)—OCLC

Coverage: Approximately 2100 B.C. - present
Update Frequency: Daily
No. of records: 254 million+ records

The world's most comprehensive bibliography, representing over 400 languages on materials ranging from stone tables to electronic books. WorldCat includes information from 2100 BC to the present with thousands of records containing evaluative content such as tables of contents, cover art, book summaries and notes about the authors. It uses the Library of Congress Subject Headings as its thesaurus. Users can also directly browse issues of periodicals in the ArticleFirst database from bibliographic records for these titles in WorldCat. WorldCat adds value to other databases in FirstSearch by linking citations to interlibrary loans and to materials in users' own libraries. Most databases in FirstSearch are enriched with over 1.7 billion holdings from WorldCat.

WorldCat® Dissertations and Theses—OCLC

Coverage: All cataloged dissertations and theses to the present
Update Frequency: Daily
No. of records: 17 million+ records

Contains records of dissertations, theses, and published materials based on all subjects cataloged by OCLC member libraries. Many citations link to full text licensed from NetLibrary and other electronic providers as well as to free electronic materials available from educational, government and other websites. All show library locations for all types of material.

Links to library holdings	Contains online full text plus graphics	Includes OCLC ILL link
Contains online full text	Links to full-text/full-image articles in other databases

OCLC Databases and FirstSearch Databases by Topic

OCLC Databases

WorldCat
OCLC ArticleFirst
Electronic Books

OAIster
OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online
OCLC PapersFirst

OCLC ProceedingsFirst
SCIPIO
WorldCat Dissertations and Theses

Databases by Topic

Arts & Humanities

WorldCat
Anthropological Index
Anthropological Literature
Anthropology Plus
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals

Chicano Database
Clase and Periódica
Electronic Collections Online
FRANCIS

Heritage of the Printed Book
Index to 19th-Century American Art Periodicals
Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies
SCIPIO

WorldCat
Chicano Database

Clase and Periódica
Electronic Collections Online

FRANCIS
Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies

Customizing FirstSearch Databases

Use the FirstSearch administrative module to customize FirstSearch for yours users and integrate FirstSearch with other information products and services that your library offers. You can:

Enhance visibility of and access to your library collections
Link to your library's catalog
Activate links to full-text
Specify a list of libraries to which your users can limit their search results
Create 'virtual catalogs' of up to 3 databases to set up persistent cross database searching
Customize the FirstSearch interlibrary loan request form for your users
more...

For details on setting up these administrative features, see the FirstSearch Administrative Module Reference Guide.

FirstSearch Documentation

OCLC provides extensive documentation for FirstSearch, such as:

Getting Started with FirstSearch (quick reference guide)
IP Address Recognition: Getting Started
FirstSearch Databases Available from OCLC's Z39.50 Server
OCLC FirstSearch: The Basics (a quick reference guide covering the basics of using FirstSearch; also available in French and Spanish)
Managing the FirstSearch Service (planning, setting up and administering FirstSearch in your library)
Administrative Module Reference Guide (customizing FirstSearch for your library's users)
FirstSearch/ILL Direct Request Link Quick Reference (setting up the link to let users generate ILL requests for materials cited in FirstSearch databases)

About OCLC

Founded in 1967, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs. More than 69,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials.

Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services such as FirstSearch to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it.

OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the OCLC Online Union Catalog.

OCLC Contacts

Contact information for OCLC offices is available on the web at http://www.oclc.org/contacts/offices/.

Herramientas del bibliotecario:
Normas y Formatos Bibliográficos (inglés)
Find an OCLC library (inglés)
Alertas del sistema (inglés)
Centro de servicios en línea (inglés)
Mas ››

OCLC es una organización sin fines de lucro, que funciona como una asociación dedicada a la prestación de servicios bibliotecarios computarizados y a la investigación, con el propósito de promover el acceso del público en general a la información de cualquier lugar del mundo y de reducir los costos asociados. Más de 72.000 bibliotecas en 170 países y territorios de todo el mundo han utilizado los servicios de OCLC para ubicar, adquirir, catalogar, prestar y preservar material bibliotecario.

Más información ››

Marcas comerciales y/o marcas de servicios nacionales e internacionales de OCLC y de sus miembros

	Buscar:
América Latina (Español) Cambio	Acerca de OCLC Noticias y Eventos Comuníquese con nosotros