DUBLIN, Ohio, July 8, 1994--The FirstSearch Catalog, the OCLC online reference service designed for the end user, is now available to the faculty, students, and librarians on university campuses throughout Australia.
The Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) decided to use the FirstSearch Catalog after participating in a three-month trial program giving the universities access to the online reference service.
"We welcome the CAUL institutions to join the rapidly growing population of FirstSearch users worldwide and are pleased that the Council of Australian University Librarians has found The FirstSearch Catalog to be an online reference service that meets the needs of its members," said Andrew H. Wang, director of OCLC Asia Pacific services.
Following a series of six OCLC seminars in December 1993, CAUL began a three-month trial of the FirstSearch Catalog in February allowing 38 Australian universities access to The FirstSearch Catalog.
The trial program allowed searching of several FirstSearch databases including WorldCat, the world's richest bibliographic database containing over 30 million records.
According to Mr. Wang, about 50 percent of all the searches by CAUL institutions during the three-month trial were on WorldCat, and 15 percent on ArticleFirst, an OCLC database containing indexes to over 10,000 journals.
Seven universities in New Zealand began a similar trial use of The FirstSearch Catalog in April. Mr. Wang said similar programs will be conducted in the Asia Pacific region in the near future.
Australian universities using the FirstSearch Catalog are: Australian Defence Force Academy; Australian National University; Ballarat University College; Bond University; Deakin University; Edith Cowan University; Griffith University; James Cook University of North Queensland; La Trobe University; Macquarie University; Monash University; Murdoch University; Northern Territory University; Queensland University of Technology; Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; Swinburne University of Technology; University of Adelaide; University of Canberra; University of Central Queensland; University of Melbourne; University of New England (Armidale); Southern Cross University; University of New South Wales; University of Newcastle; University of Queensland; University of South Australia; University of Sydney; University of Southern Queensland; University of Tasmania; University of Technology, Sydney; University of Western Australia; University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury; University of Western Sydney, Nepean; University of Wollongong; and Victoria University of Technology.
OCLC is a nonprofit computer library service and research organization whose computer network and services link more than 18,000 libraries in 52 countries and territories.
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