The following announcement was made by the Hunter Library today, September 10, 1997 via hunter-l. It is reprinted below in its entirety, but reformatted for Web display. Students in SOC341 may use these additional data bases for their homework assignment(s) - though I do not guarantee success. Please note that free access is available only from computers on any CUNY campus, but not from computer at home. Reason: Access rights are checked via the IP address of the requesting computer, not via SSN as with some other data bases.

During September and October, the CUNY campuses will have a free trial of many of the OCLC FirstSearch databases. The address is http://www.ref.oclc.org:2000/FSIP. OCLC FirstSearch provides access to databases that range from periodical indexes to phone books, plus WorldCat, which is the web version of the OCLC Union Catalog.

Highlights of OCLC FirstSearch include:

1. General periodicals indexes:

• FASTDOC (all full-text articles)
• H. WILSON SELECT (all full-text articles)
• EBSCO MASTERFILE (many full-text articles)
• UMI PERIODICAL ABSTRACTS (many full-text articles)

2. NEW YORK TIMES: the last 90 days full-text with indexing back to 1994

3. FACTSEARCH: facts and statistics on current social, economic, political, environmental and health issues

4. NETFIRST: an index to full-text World Wide Web sources with proven informational value

5. Business information:

• ABI INFORM
• BUSINESS & INDUSTRY
• BUSINESS DATELINE
• DISCLOSURE CORPORATE SNAPSHOTS
• BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS, AGENCIES & PUBLICATIONS DIRECTORY
• WILSON BUSINESS ABSTRACTS
• WORLDSCOPE GLOBAL

6. Other Reference Sources:

• WORLDCAT: OCLC Online Union Catalog
• WORLD ALMANAC
• PRO CD BIZ (business telephone listings)
• PRO CD HOME (residential telephone listings)

As before, any computer with World Wide Web access on any CUNY campus may access these databases during the trial period. The computers in the Hunter College Main Library that have Web access will have OCLC FirstSearch bookmarked, and the CUNY libraries homepage (http://cuny.libraries.edu) will have a link.

Since the CUNY librarians are evaluating this product for possible permanent addition to the electronic holdings of the University, we welcome your comments.

Linda Dickinson <ldickins@shiva.hunter.cuny.edu>