BioOne makes public debut

Abstract

BioOne is distributed in the U.S. and Canada by Amigos Library Services. BioOne is distributed throughout the rest of the world by OCLC Online Computer Library Center via the OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online service. OCLC will make BioOne accessible internationally beginning in June 2001. OCLC will also serve as one of the archive sites for BioOne content.

On April 3, 2001, BioOne was officially released on the Web (see the June 2000 issue of Online Libraries and Microcomputers p.1 for background on this initiative). Subscribers now have access to the full texts of a collection of bioscience research journals with internal reference linking among the journals. Nonsubscribers can view the tables of contents and abstracts of participating journals.

BioOne has licensed the content of 40 highly cited, peer-reviewed journals. It increases functionality of participating journals and enhances services to scientific society members and all researchers, especially with its reference linking, broad distribution and library-friendly pricing. Journals participating in BioOne include American Midland Naturalist (University of Notre Dame), Annals of the ESA (Entomological Society of America), Ambio (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences), BioScience (American Institute of Biological Sciences), American Zoologist (Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology), Evolution (Society for the Study of Evolution),

Photochemistry and Photobiology (American Society for Photobiology), and Wetlands, among many others.

The titles in BioOne are published by scientific societies and other nonprofit organizations and most have until now been available only in print. BioOne is endorsed by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition).

"BioOne represents a unique collaboration among scientific societies and libraries," said Heather Joseph, President and COO of BioOne. "BioOne was created to fill a need expressed by both, and now that it has allowed society journals an active electronic presence, and brought that service to the public at a library-friendly price, it benefits both communities."

BioOne is distributed in the U.S. and Canada by Amigos Library Services. BioOne is distributed throughout the rest of the world by OCLC Online Computer Library Center via the OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online service. OCLC will make BioOne accessible internationally beginning in June 2001. OCLC will also serve as one of the archive sites for BioOne content.

BioOne's development has been spearheaded by its collaborating organizations, the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), SPARC, the University of Kansas, the Big 12 Plus Libraries Consortium, and Allen Press. All are providing continuing financial, strategic and tactical support. In addition, Allen Press performs Web site development, database fabrication and text conversion and production, contributing the large majority of conversion costs to BioOne's participating societies, and the University of Kansas serves as primary Internet host, system operator and initial database repository, at no charge to Biot?ne during start-up.

BioOne's start-up and development has been funded by SPARC and Big 12 Plus member libraries, as well as by special contributions from Amigos and OCLC. More information is available from: http:#urw.bioone.org or AMIGOS Library Services: http://www.amigos.org or OCLC: http://www.oclc.org