Status Line

• Reference Services
• June 2006
• Issue: 203

FirstSearch Functionality

New Arabic Language Interface

Just as end-users may select a FirstSearch interface in Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean or Chinese, they may now choose Arabic as one of the non-English languages at the bottom of the FirstSearch screen. WorldCat, has more than 350,000 bibliographic records referring to Arabic materials held by OCLC member libraries. Users may now search in Arabic script and display the results in the language of the bibliographic record. Translations of online Help are also available. To optimally view the Arabic interface, users will need Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5 or higher, or Netscape version 6 or higher.

WorldCat in Windows Live Academic

WorldCat metadata will help power Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Live Academic, a new service that lets Web users search a spectrum of academic content. The initial beta release will target the subjects of computer science, electrical engineering and physics. Currently, WorldCat records for about 336,000 theses and dissertations are included in the service's beta release, which was launched April 12. When the beta release is concluded, three million records representing WorldCat books related to science will be added to the search tool to help increase Web visibility of library collections. OCLC's involvement in Windows Live Academic is part of the Open WorldCat "Find in a Library" program.

[OCLC - edited by Joyce Rambo, Reference & Digital Collections Librarian, Nylink]