Journals will be loaded in their entirety, on or before their publication date. OCLC will also provide libraries with ongoing access to an archive of the journals they have subscribed to. With FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online, OCLC is building on its experience in electronic publishing to provide libraries with a cost-effective way to access, archive and manage large collections of electronic journals. Libraries using Electronic Collections Online will subscribe to journals directly with publishers or subscription agents and access them remotely through the World Wide Web at OCLC's headquarters in Dublin, Ohio. End users of Electronic Collections Online will be able to search, browse for and display article citations for all the journals available through the service and display abstracts or complete articles for journals their library subscribes to.
Users can browse lists of journals, selected issues or a selected topic area.
Electronic Collections Online combines the cost benefits associated with remote access to data with the advantages of local collection management. It will reduce information costs for libraries by centralizing storage and access. This will enable libraries to share the cost of loading, archiving and providing access to their electronic journal collections. We have been looking at a number of ways to provide subscribing institutions the option of accessing content electronically. Being able to deliver information directly to researchers and practitioners at their workstations, when they need it, is critical to the future success of scholarly publishing.