OCLC FirstSearch Service Databases in Brief

Connecting to a World of Information

The OCLC FirstSearch service supports research in a wide range of subject areas. At the heart of FirstSearch is WorldCat®, containing more than 271 million records representing over 1.8 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.

OCLC and EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) have signed an agreement for EBSCO to host, distribute and support ten databases now available through the OCLC FirstSearch service.  Learn more at the Frequently asked questions: transition of FirstSearch databases to EBSCO Publishing.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Databases by Topic

Arts & Humanities

Business & Economics

Conferences & Proceedings

Consumer Affairs & People

Education

Engineering & Technology

General

General Science

Life Sciences

Medicine/Health, Consumer

Medicine/Health, Professional

Public Affairs & Law

Quick Reference

Social Sciences

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/.