Action for Libraries

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BCRNETWORK NEWS
Bibliographical Center for Research ,. Volume XX.,No II; November 1994 '. (SSN: 0363·0250
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Kansas State Library,BCR andOCLC
, Team Up to Provide Fir,stSearch Bargain
By Sharon Hoflhines '
FirstSearch, that world of online information accessible
through OCLC,now is available to Kansas libraries at a
fraction of OCLC's us;'al price. The exceptional value'
haS been made possible through a joint demonstration'
project initiated by the Kansas State Library and BCR
'with the cooperation of OCLC.
Under the project's eight.week trial period, which be·
gan October 17, 430 Kansas libraries already co;'nected
, to the Internet have unli~it~d access to FirstSearch at
no cost to the libraries. That gives them unlimited ac·
cess to UM:r's ABI/Inform, Periodical Abstracts Re- '
search II, Newspaper Abstracts, ERIC, Medline, GPO
, and OCLC's WorldCat, A11:icleFirst, ContentsFirst,
.PapersFirst and ProceedirigsFirst: -Kansas' seven re- .
gionallibrary systems will pr9vide telephone'technical
support and training.' ,
, Following the trial period, libraries that opt to c6nti~ue
, to use FirstSearch on the Internet will have to pay, but
'at a much lower cost than ';nder their individual sub·
scriptions, according to Bruce Flanders; director of tech·
nology at the Kansas State Library, coordinator of the'
Kansas,FirstSearch project. " ' "
"It's incredibly cheaper to get on FirstSearch through
this project," said Flanders. In an article in the Septem·
ber Kansas Librari sanders ointed ouuhat the cost
, 1 rary purchasing a single "logon" from
FirstSearch online under an individual subscription is
$29,000 annually. ,The Kansas projectwillkeep'the Cos
'ecauseof the multiple libraries using lrst earch .
The more simultaneous-users accommodated by Kansas'
FirstSearch, the lower the price those -libraries will have
to pay. If Kansas'libraries purchase 300 OCLC '
FirstSeatch, "logons" with 50 simultaneous ports config.
ured, ,each "logo;'''would cost less than $1,600 a year.
In mid.Novetribe~, Flanders and' his staff will contact
, the participating libraries to discover those interested in
continuing usi;'g Kansas FirstSea~ch. He believes he'
'will find pl~nty of takers. 'His desk already has a pil~ of
messages asking for information about'the project.
He's also ~ncouraged by the number of libraries partici.
pat~ng in. the two-m<?nth demonsi;ation. '
"All sizes and, types of libraries are participating," said
Flanders; public, school, academic, special and medical
libraries are involved. "Recognizing that there will be
other libraries interested in it, we will institute a six·
mon~h initial subscription,'" he said.
, What about the many small, rural libraries that must re, '
, strict spending because, 01 limited funds and staff? Fhin­ders
says these libraries will get more than justa bargain
price; they also will have access to databases that in the
,past they could only dream about. '
"In fact, sometimes the smaller, rurall~braries are the
ones"most tuned into online searching," Fl:mders said.
, ;"They've already shown m~reinterest in this project
than other types of libraries." '
For those libraries not yet connected to the Internet, a
$160,000s~ate library grant has been distributed to the
regional library systems. They are looking for libraries
without th~ equipment ,needed to 'access INK (Informa­tion
Network of Kansas) and the Internet and will pro­vide
up to $800 to purchase it.
If you want to know more about the Kansas FirstSearch
project, contact Flanders by phone at (913) 296-3154, by
fax at (913) 296-6650 or by e-mail at ksst1llb@ink.org.
A;Non.prof.it Multi·.tlte LibreryServii:e. Cooperltive