"The Experimental Search System (ESS) is one of the Library of Congress' first efforts to make selected cataloging and digital library resources available over the World Wide Web by means of a single, point-and-click interface. The interface consists of several search query pages (Basic, Advanced, Number, and a Browse screen) and several search results pages (an item list of brief displays and an item full display), together with brief help files which link directly from significant words on those pages. By exploiting the powerful synergies of hyperlinking and a relevancy-ranked search engine (InQuery from Sovereign Hill Software), we hope the ESS will provide a new and more intuitive way of searching the traditional OPAC (on-line public access catalog). […]
Besides the cataloging records for over 4 million books (including JACKPHY records not currently available through SCORPIO); 263,000 motion pictures, videos, filmstrips and other visual work; 200,000 sound recordings and musical scores; more than 150,000 maps; and 4,300 computer files - i.e., LC cataloging records created since 1968 - ESS also contains the cataloging for almost 140,000 photographs and manuscripts in the National Digital Library Program's American Memory, linking to more than 70,000 digital photographs and images available on-line. By indexing the works selected and organized by The On-Line Books Page at Carnegie Mellon University, links are also provided to the full-text of over 2,500 on-line books from sites across the Internet. Even early motion pictures are available for searching and viewing once the proper viewer is installed. (Hint: try searching on the subject heading 'shorts' in the Photographs, Manuscripts, Movies collection.)"
Except for their prohibitive costs, the commercial databases give us an idea of what the catalogs could be in the future: for the past several years the Dialog Corporation, Lexis-Nexis or UnCover have been using their catalogs to provide on-line documents.
Based in London, United Kingdom, with regional headquarters in Mountain View, California, and Hong Kong, the Dialog Corporation is a major on-line information company, with 900 main databases (the most well-known being Dialog and Profound) serving over 20,000 corporate clients in 120 countries. Content areas include: news and media; medicine; pharmaceuticals; chemicals; reference; social sciences; business and finance; food and agriculture; intellectual property; government and regulations; science and technology; and energy and environment.
LEXIS-NEXIS is an international provider of enhanced information services and management tools using on-line, Internet, CD-ROM and hardcopy formats for a variety of professionals. It serves customers in more than 60 countries. The 25-year old company has introduced Web products for business, legal and academic research, current awareness, and both standard and customizable tracking of competitive and business subjects and companies on a daily basis.
A service of CARL Corporation, UnCover is both a fax reprint service and the world's largest database of magazine and journal articles, with current article information taken from well over 17,000 multidisciplinary journals. UnCover contains brief descriptive information for over 7,000,000 articles which have appeared since Fall 1988. Any Internet surfer can use the free keyword access to article titles and summaries.
8.2. International Bibliographic Databases
Two organizations, the OCLC Online Computer Library Center and the Research Library Information Network (RLIN), run international databases of bibliographic information through the Internet.
The OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, membership, library computer service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs. More than 27,000 libraries in 65 countries use OCLC services to manage their collections and to provide on-line reference services. The site is available in English, Chinese, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.
OCLC Services include: access services; collections and technical services;
reference services; resource sharing; Dewey Decimal Classification (published in
OCLC Forest Press); and preservation resources. From its headquarters in Dublin,
Ohio, OCLC operates one of the world's largest library information networks.
Libraries in the United States join OCLC through their OCLC-affiliated Regional
Networks. Libraries outside the United States receive OCLC services through OCLC
Asia Pacific, OCLC Canada, OCLC Europe, OCLC Latin America and the Caribbean, or
via international distributors.