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
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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 |
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
|
Business & Economics
WorldCat
|
Electronic Collections Online
|
|
Conferences & Proceedings
| WorldCat |
OCLC PapersFirst |
OCLC ProceedingsFirst |
Consumer Affairs & People
| WorldCat |
Chicano Database |
Electronic Collections Online |
Education
WorldCat
|
Electronic Collections Online
|
ERIC |
Engineering & Technology
WorldCat
OCLC PapersFirst
|
OCLC Proceedings First
Clase and Periódica
|
Electronic Collections Online
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine |
General
WorldCat
OCLC ArticleFirst
Chicano Database
|
Electronic Books
Electronic Collections Online
|
OAIster
WorldCat Dissertations and Theses |
General Science
WorldCat
Clase and Periódica |
Electronic Collections Online
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
|
Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies
|
Life Sciences
WorldCat
|
Clase and Periódica
|
Electronic Collections Online |
Medicine/Health, Consumer
| WorldCat |
Electronic Collections Online |
MEDLINE |
Medicine/Health, Professional
WorldCat
Electronic Collections Online
|
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine |
MEDLINE |
Public Affairs & Law
| WorldCat
|
Electronic Collections Online
|
GPO Monthly Catalog
|
Quick Reference
WorldCat
Electronic Books
|
Facts on File Encyclopedia |
WorldCat Dissertations and Theses |
Social Sciences
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:
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/.
Librarians' Toolbox:
