OBS OCLC COMMITTEE
	Susan Chinoransky George Washington University schinoransky@burns.nlc.gwu.edu

New Keyword Searching

Sometime during the spring of 2000, OCLC will introduce its new keyword searching capabilities. The new techniques are detailed in Technical Bulletin 235, which can be found online at http://www.oclc.org/oclc/menu/tb.htm. The search process appears to be much more sophisticated than in the past. Many of the indexes have been updated, and 14 new indexes have been added. These include:

Access method
Citation/References
Conference name
Corporate name
Dewey Decimal class number
Extended author
Extended title
Library of Congress class number
National Agricultural Library class number
National Library of Canada class number
National Library of Medicine class number
Personal name
Standard number
Universal Decimal class number.

Please keep in mind that keyword searching is the most expensive method of searching, and ought to be utilized when more traditional methods have failed to uncover that pesky, hard-to-find bibliographic record.

WebExpress

Another innovative service to be introduced in the spring of 2000 is OCLC WebExpress, an easy-to-use integrated gateway to library resources, custom designed on a local level to meet each institution’s needs. According to Victoria Miller, OCLC WebExpress product manager, “Through a Web interface, a librarian will be able to easily select resources to be accessed via one interface, choose the interface look and feel, build the paths or links between remote and local resources, and add messages designed to assist local users.” OCLC plans to set up a WebExpress Service Center which will be a site that provides its users with up-to-date information on the service. I plan to continue to watch for developments of this service in order to assess its efficacy for my own library.

OCLC Web Site