Q&A – FirstSearch and SUNY

Q: If SUNYConnect does not renew the university-wide subscription to the FirstSearch Base Package, what are my library’s options for subscribing? I am particularly interested in access to WorldCat.

Nylink has price quotes for the Base Package, the OCLC databases as well as price estimates for a subscription to the WorldCat database. Please direct questions regarding FirstSearch and/or WorldCat to Ms. Donna Dixon at Nylink (800-342-3353).

A: Libraries may choose from one of three options to continue to provide their patrons with unlimited, remote access to WorldCat:

1 and 2: Subscribe to the Base Package or the OCLC Collection as part of the Nylink New York Statewide Aggregation. Since 1998, Nylink and OCLC have collaborated to offer discounted pricing to these database packages to New York libraries. For the past several years, New York libraries have achieved a 33% discount off national pricing for these packages through the Nylink aggregation. If we again reach that level this year, pricing would be as follows:

  1. Base Package (WorldCat, OCLC ArticleFirst, WorldCat Theses and Dissertations, CLASE/Periódica, EBooks Index, OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online (bibliographic index), PapersFirst, ProceedingsFirst, ERIC, GPO, MEDLINE and World Almanac)

$1.96 per FTE less 5% OCLC member discount

  1. OCLC Collection (WorldCat, OCLC ArticleFirst, WorldCat Theses and Dissertations, EBooks Index, OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online (bibliographic index).

$1.74 per FTE less 5% OCLC member discount

For the Base Package and OCLC Collection Options, community college FTE is counted at 50%; all other libraries use full FTE. FTE numbers have been provided to Nylink by SUNY OLIS.

  1. Subscribe to WorldCat as an unlimited access database. Individual library pricing for WorldCat as a standalone is based upon FTE tiers. If more than one SUNY library is interested in the WorldCat-only option, Nylink would create a WorldCat subscription group to achieve the best possible price for those libraries. Final pricing would depend upon the makeup of the group. For a ballpark estimate, individual library pricing for FY 06/07 is projected as follows.

Academic FTE up to / Community College FTE up to / Projected Cost*
1,000 / 1,400 / $1,875
2,000 / 2,800 / $2,400
4,000 / 5,600 / $4,375
6,000 / 8,400 / $6,550
8,000 / 11,200 / $8,750
10,000 / 14,000 / $10,700
12,000 / 16,800 / $12,600
14,000 / 19,600 / $14,675
16,000 / 22,400 / $16,650
18,000 / 25,200 / $18,725
20,000 / 28,000 / $20,800

*FY 06/07 individual library pricing for WorldCat has not yet been finalized by OCLC as of April 6, 2006.

Q. What if I buy blocks of searches rather than opting for a subscription to WorldCat or one of the packages?

  1. One of the benefits of having an unlimited subscription to WorldCat on FirstSearch is visibility of your library’s holdings in Open WorldCat on leading search engines. Access through block searches does not offer this visibility. The other downside is that if you deplete your supply of searches sooner than you projected, you will need to purchase more, so the pricing is a bit less predictable that way.

Usage statistics for WorldCat for typical academic and community college libraries that offer WorldCat access to their end users show that it is far more cost effective to purchase subscription access to WorldCat than it is to purchase blocks of searches.

Q. My ILL staff has access to WorldCat through the WorldCat Resource Sharing interface. What about just using that access?

A. ILL access is for staff only. You would lose the ability to allow your students and faculty to use WorldCat, and they also would not be able to use OCLC ILL Direct Request for patron-initiated borrowing . In addition, ILL authorizations do not allow open URL linking, NetLibrary authentication, pay per-use full-text or HTML full text, or any of the other end-user linking or tools available in FirstSearch. There is no visibility in Open WorldCat for ILL-only access to WorldCat.

Q. If I did decide to just use my WorldCat Resource Sharing authorization for staff access to WorldCat, would I have to pay anything extra?

A. ILL access to WorldCat is for Resource Sharing purposes only. If you began to use this access for reference purposes you would eventually exceed average search to produce ratios for resource sharing. Such atypical usage can trigger a review and adjustment to your ILL subscription base price, and would then “lock-in” an increased cost for resource sharing. In addition, all WorldCat searching would be tracked in resource sharing statistics only, so that you would be unable to determine your own patterns of usage.

Q. How do I look at my WorldCat usage statistics for FirstSearch?

A.OCLC Usage Statistics for FirstSearch contain information about your library's use of the FirstSearch service. This assists you in monitoring user capacity and evaluating which databases are searched most often.

Here are some examples of how you might apply the information provided by these reports:

  • Usage Statistics provides you with a tool to evaluate how many simultaneous logons you need to purchase overall and how to set user limits at the database level for mid-year additions or annual renewals.
  • You can use Usage Statistics reports to monitor database usage. A database that is offered per search may get such heavy usage that it is economically advantageous for you to purchase a subscription to that database. Conversely, a database that receives little usage might be offered per search in the future instead of via subscription. Or, you may want to promote use of a given database that has been purchased via subscription in order to boost its usage.
  • You can use statistics to adjust database user limits. You may note that user limits have been set too high in one database and too low in another. You may want to change the user limits for these databases in the upcoming renewal year.
  • You can use statistics to determine when subscribing to a journal is more economical than purchasing its articles individually through per-article purchase. Reports in the OCLC Usage Statistics service include per-article purchase data by journal.

To retrieve your library's statistics, follow these steps:

  1. Connect to url:
  2. Type your FirstSearch authorization number and your administrative or statistics password in the boxes provided.
  3. Click on the start button and a new page will load.
  4. Click on the FirstSearch tab if it is not already selected.
  5. Select the monthly report you wish to view from the “Period” drop-down menu (the most recent report will be automatically selected).
  6. Type the number of months of data you wish the report to include in the “Months” intake area. (The maximum look-back period is 36 months).
  7. Click on the “Update” button.
  8. For individual institutions you will the following types ofreport links:
  9. The Institution Report: which presents total activity statistics for one OCLC symbol. If your institution only has one authorization number, this is the report you would use.
  10. The authorization report: which gives detailed statistics for all active FirstSearch authorization numbers.
  11. For individual institution, the reports available under each of the report links are:
  12. Overview: shows session turnaways and searches used for all FirstSearch databases; it does not break it down by individual databases.
  13. Searches Used: shows searches used for individual databases (e.g. WilsonSelectPlus), but it does not show turnaways.
  14. Simultaneous Usage: shows both searches and turnaways for individual databases (e.g. WilsonSelectPlus).
  15. Full Text Used: shows the number of full-text documents ordered (viewed).
  16. Overview of ECO Full Text Used: Provides general information about the Electronic Collections Online (ECO) full text used.
  17. Journal Details of ECO Full Text Used: Provides information for each Electronic Collections Online (ECO) journal about the ECO full text used.
  18. FirstSearchILL Link Activity: Contains the number of PatronILL requests sent by the given institution from the FirstSearch patron interface.
  19. When you click on a report link, data for the initial month you selected (e.g. March, 2006), plus the previous number of months you selected for the look-back period, presented by month.
  20. You may change the look-back period while displaying a report by changing the period or the number of months, and clicking “Update”.

1