In a landmark deal, the Alternative Press Center, publishers of the Alternative Press Index has joined OCLC and negotiated for the Index to be served up by Firstsearch and for many journals indexed there to enter OCLC\’s Electronic Collections Online in full-text. This is a great development for supporters of the alternative press and believers in the necessity of turning to the Alternative Press to supplement near-monopoly publishing in order to fulfill the Library Bill of Rights.
Press release from OCLC inside:
In a landmark deal, the Alternative Press Center, publishers of the Alternative Press Index has joined OCLC and negotiated for the Index to be served up by Firstsearch and for many journals indexed there to enter OCLC\’s Electronic Collections Online in full-text. This is a great development for supporters of the alternative press and believers in the necessity of turning to the Alternative Press to supplement near-monopoly publishing in order to fulfill the Library Bill of Rights.
Press release from OCLC inside:Alternative Press Center becomes OCLC member
DUBLIN, Ohio, June 15, 2001-The Alternative Press Center (APC) will be
joining OCLC as a cataloging member and has agreed to offer its database,
the Alternative Press Index (API), on the OCLC FirstSearch service. The
database will be available both via subscription and per-search and will
link to the holdings in OCLC library collections.
Through a collaborative agreement between OCLC and the Alternative Press
Center, OCLC will add information on the APC library holdings of
periodicals and monographs into WorldCat. The holdings symbol is ALTPR. The
APC library maintains the last five years of items indexed in the
Alternative Press Index.
\”We are pleased and excited at the opportunity to work with OCLC,\” said
Chuck D\’Adamo, co-editor of the Alternative Press Index. \”The collaboration
with OCLC will significantly enhance the fulfillment of the Alternative
Press Center\’s general mission to increase public awareness of the
alternative, independent, critical press.\”
\”With these materials linked in WorldCat to holdings in libraries
worldwide, FirstSearch will make them visible and more available,\” said
Lori Saviers, director of Product Marketing and Licensing, OCLC Reference
and Resource Sharing. \”This project represents OCLC\’s new product strategy
at work and will greatly expand options for libraries. OCLC is actively
seeking to expand the ranks of \’non-traditional\’ members, and the library
of the Alternative Press Center is a reflection of this expansion by
reaching out beyond the traditional membership base.\”
The back files of source materials indexed in the API are currently being
archived at the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery Special Collections (OCLC
symbol: MUB, a PALINET library), of the University of Maryland, Baltimore
County (UMBC). This archive represents one of the most complete collections
of alternative and left-wing periodicals available in the United States.
\”We are very excited to be collaborating with the Alternative Press Center
and OCLC on this project,\” said Larry Wilt, library director, University of
Maryland, Baltimore County. \”We recognize the great value of this project
to the library community. It will result in greater visibility and use of
the Alternative Press Center\’s collections by libraries and researchers
everywhere.\”
The Alternative Press Index covers nearly 300 periodicals that report and
analyze the practices and theories of cultural, economic, political and
social change. OCLC plans to add the database to FirstSearch in the fourth
quarter of 2001. The full text of 39 publications in API are currently
available through OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online.
The Alternative Press Center (APC) is a non-profit collective dedicated to
providing access to and increasing public awareness of the alternative
press. It has indexed 880 newspaper and periodical titles since its launch
in 1969 to provide access to the practices and theories of radical social
change. The Alternative Press Index (API) has been recognized as a leading
guide to the alternative press in the United States and around the world.
The API is international and interdisciplinary, spans the social sciences
and humanities, and includes popular and scholarly magazines and journals.
The Special Collections Department of the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery
of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), makes available for
appreciation and study a number of the great artistic and documentary
treasures of western culture. Rare books, photographs, artifacts, and
manuscripts are accessible here in the original, with trained professionals
ready to assist in the use and interpretation of these research materials.
Recent Comments