H.W. Wilson has announced that its Essay and General Literature Index,
a database of information on thousands of essays compiled in anthologies
and collections, is now available to users of OCLC's FirstSearch service.
The company has also announced that it has entered into a distribution
agreement with the Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO) to make the latter's
AMICO Library available via WilsonWeb.
OCLC Partnership
The Essay and General Literature Index cites essays and articles from
collections and anthologies published in the U.S. and Canada. More than
300 volumes are indexed annually, and retrospective coverage reaches as
far back as 1985. Additionally, more than 20 annuals and serial publications,
such as Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society,
The
Supreme Court Review, Dickens Studies Annual, and Anglo-Saxon
England, are indexed. Besides citing the individual essays, Essay and
General Literature Index provides full bibliographic information on the
collections indexed.
At present, Essay and General Literature Index delivers information
on 59,370 essays from some 4,855 collections. The database is updated annually.
According to the announcement, fast searching by subject, title, author,
source, and more provides easy access for researchers.
The OCLC FirstSearch service offers library users online access to more
than 70 databases in a wide range of subject areas, including Wilson databases
in business, the humanities, science, and the social sciences. FirstSearch
also includes more than 3,300 electronic journals available through OCLC
FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online, links to the OCLC interlibrary
loan service, and libraries' holdings information for the millions of items
cataloged in the WorldCat database.
The AMICO Library
The AMICO Library, an online resource of art images and multimedia
gathered from AMICO member museums, provides educational institutions with
images and other related information to support learning in art history,
the humanities, studio art and design, and other subjects.
"The AMICO Library fits naturally into Wilson's existing assortment
of art and biography reference materials, and its visual quality, impressive
array of content, and member sources provide a resource that should appeal
to a great deal of our existing users," said Deborah Loeding, H.W. Wilson's
vice president of sales and marketing.
Documentation and images of a range of art, such as paintings, sculpture,
prints, photographs, illustrations, arms and armor, costumes and jewelry,
decorative arts, textiles, and other works, comprise the contents of this
online resource. Works in The AMICO Library span the length of artistic
creation, from 3000 B.C. to the late 20th century, and represent a broad
cross-section of cultures from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa.
Each work in The AMICO Library features at least one high-resolution
digital image and a full description. More than an image database, The
AMICO Library may also include curatorial text, provenance information,
details or multiple views of the work, and other related multimedia, like
sound and video.
"Our goal is to integrate art and cultural resources into as many online
environments as possible. The relationship between AMICO and H.W. Wilson
enables us to connect to an entirely new user community. Broadening our
reach and scope drives AMICO members' enthusiasm and participation," said
Jennifer Trant, AMICO's executive director. "Wilson's plans to integrate
The AMICO Library with other Wilson resources will help us meet our mission
of enabling educational use of museum multimedia across the curriculum."
The initial delivery of The AMICO Library will be as an additional database
in Wilson's WilsonWeb offerings. Greater integration of The AMICO Library
with other Wilson research databases through hyperlinks to related content
or appropriate bibliographic citations is currently in development and
Wilson anticipates an enhanced release next year.
Source: H.W. Wilson, New York, 800/367-6770, 718/588-8400; http://www.hwwilson.com. |