In addition to the announcement of Ebsco Publishing’s acquisition of Netlibrary, OCLC has also announced

“an important change to our FirstSearch content services. OCLC is transitioning out of our role as reseller of vendor-owned content. Therefore we will transfer or discontinue sale of the vendor-owned databases on FirstSearch when subscriptions have ended.

We will instead increase our focus for both FirstSearch and WorldCat.org on providing libraries with access to a rich set of library-owned content and increasing visibility and access to the full scope of a library’s collection. We will work with libraries, publishers and other information providers to expand WorldCat.org as a comprehensive platform for eContent.”

Drexel currently has access to several databases on the Firstsearch platform.

Those affected by this change are:

• AltPressIndex
• BasicBiosis
• Contemporary Women’s Issues
• GeoRefS
• Wilson Select Plus

We will have access to these databases on the Firstsearch platform until our subscriptions end (July 2010), at which time we will have to replace access through another provider.

Drexel also has access to several databases that will remain available on through OCLC Firstsearch.  those are:

• ArticleFirst
• Clase & Periodica
• OCLC Electronic Books
• Electronic Collections Online (ECO)
• GPO Monthly Catalog
• History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
• PapersFirst
• ProceedingsFirst
• World Almanacs

For more information on the cheanges to OCLC Firstsearch, see this FAQ from OCLC: http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/questions/

Proquest announced last week that the president of Bowker (who provides us with Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory and Global Books in Print) has been named the Proquest Chief Operating Officer under a new agreement merging the Bowker and Proquest companies.  See the full press release here.

According to our Bowker representative, Bowker will still be operating as an independent company for the foreseeable future, with no discernable changes to their current projects, including their AquaBrowser faceted search product and their adaptation of Library Thing for Libraries.

As noted in yesterday’s Library Journal Academic Newswire,

“Springer, the world’s second largest publisher of commercial STM (science, technology, and medicine) journals, has acquired pioneering for-profit open access (OA) publisher BioMed Central (BMC). Financial terms were not disclosed. On the balance sheet, adding BioMed Central would seem to be a very minor deal for Springer; BioMed Central publishes some 193 open access journals with revenues of roughly $24.5 million, while Springer publishes over 1700 journals in addition to 5500 new books annually, with revenues nearly $1.25 billion. It is a significant event in the history of open access publishing, however, as a leading commercial publisher has now expressed confidence in a business model once deemed, at best, experimental, and often called untenable.”

Springer has announced their commitment to Open Access journals, but has not disclosed their plans for any changes to BMC’s current Open Access model.

Taylor & Francis Group recently acquired the publishing portfolio of Haworth Press. After several months of spotty access to these journals through the Haworth site, Taylor and Francis has finally begun migrating these journals to their Informaworld platform.
From November 2008 Taylor & Francis will begin to load journal titles formerly published by Haworth Press to www.informaworld.com.
From this point, no new content with a 2009 volume year will be added to www.haworthpress.com, nor will any new accounts be created on the site. Taylor & Francis expect this load to be complete by mid-December, and for all Haworth content to be available on informaworld from this point.
The Haworth Press site will run in tandem with informaworld until 30th March 2009, after which date the site will be closed.
In order to minimize user disruption Taylor & Francis is offering a free trial to all Haworth Press content on informaworld between November 2008 and February 2009. This will also give us an opportunity to check our holdings on informaworld are correct.
The Haworth Press license currently allows access to purchased volume years only. Once content is loaded to www.informaworld.com, the access model will change to allow online access to current content along with a backfile to 1997, where digitized. Purchased content will be available in perpetuity.
Here is a list of Haworth Journals to which Drexel subscribes / has subscribed. On the Informaworld platform, we will have access to 1997 – Present for all these journals, regardless of the years actually subscribed.