Janet Mitchell is managing director, OCLC Europe. NetFirst, the OCLC FirstSearch service index of Internet resources, currently has 55,000 listings and is growing steadily. The agreement gives staff and students at licensed sites unrestricted access to the NetFirst database. Available on the FirstSearch and EPIC services, the OCLC NetFirst database is an authoritative Internet directory produced using a combination of automated collection and verification techniques, as well as proven abstracting and indexing practices. Editors guide the collection process to ensure inclusion of only significant resources and create original abstracts for NetFirst records.
Hot links provide direct access to Web-cited resources.
A NetFirst Collection Development Policy, recently approved by OCLC, provides a framework for the systematic growth of the NetFirst database. The new policy emphasizes the description of resources for librarians, libraries and their users, and the evaluation of items for their authoritativeness and quality. The Combined Higher Education Software Team was formed in 1988 to provide a central body to negotiate with software suppliers on behalf of the United Kingdom's Higher Education and Research Council Community. There are now 100 academic and special libraries in Japan using the OCLC FirstSearch service, the online reference service designed for library users. According to Andrew H. Wang, director, OCLC Asia Pacific Services, more libraries in Japan use FirstSearch than in any other country in the Asia Pacific region.