A degree of assistance is on the way for librarians who feel that the usefulness of the OCLC Online Union Catalog is limited by the OCLC system's inability to provide subject access to the records. BRS Information Technologies and OCLC have signed an agreement whereby a subset of approximately one million records from the Online Union Catalog will be available for subject searching on BRS in Fall 1985. The records will include books, serials, sound recordings, scores, audiovisual materials, maps, manuscripts and software with imprint dates within the last four years. The file will be updated regularly.
Dubbed the OCLC EASI (Electronic Access to Subject Information) Reference Service, the product will provide access to modified records formatted into the public access/reference display used by BRS. Library holdings data will not be available online, but the records will contain the OCLC number to facilitate retrieval by OCLC members of the full bibliographic record from the OCLC Online Union Catalog.
Access will be through numeric and title searches, keywords, and Library of Congress and National Library of Medicine Subject Headings. OCLC members will be able to use their M300 workstations in dial-up mode to access the OCLC EASI Reference Service. All BRS subscribers, including both OCLC members and non-member libraries, can use the service. OCLC members will be granted a substantially discounted rate from BRS for use of OCLC EASI Reference.
[Contact: OCLC, 6565 Frantz Road, Dublin, OH 43017-0702.]
