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If you are a religious reader of this column, then you know that I do not write all the articles. No, that would be just too boring. So to add “spice” to the column I often entertain the works of guest columnists. Actually, the reason for including guest columnists has less to do with “spice” than it does with general interest. When I receive articles from column readers, it gives me insight into their professional experiences, and in turn I share what I have learned with you.

Well I'll tell you what's new. Here is a potpourri of items pertaining to the EPIC Service and/or the FirstSearch catalog that should be of interest to Public Services librarians.

Presents news and database announcements pertaining to the EPIC service. Discusses EPIC subscriptions, nonmember price reductions, the introduction of FirstSearch, Sunday availability of EPIC, GPO catalog availability, the addition of GeoRef and BIOSIS databases, and the withdrawal of the Book Return database containing a 16,000‐record inventory of books stolen.

That's right, OCLC has added five new databases to The FirstSearch Catalog and EPIC service. Now available on The First‐Search Catalog and the EPIC service are Contents‐First, ArticleFirst, Social Sciences Index, General Science Index, and Event‐Line.

Before introducing the guest columnists for this issue, I want to remind you that one purpose of this column is to provide librarians with a forum whereby they can address the topic of using OCLC for public services. That's why I make use of guest columnists rather than writing all the columns myself.

Carol Tenopir is a professor at the School of Library and Information Studies, University of Hawaii. She has a BA in English/History from Whittier College in California, an MS in Library Science from California State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in Library and Information Science. She teaches courses in Electronic Reference Services, Advanced Online Information Services, Indexing and Abstracting, and the Information Industry. Dr. Tenopir is well known for her Library Journal column, “Online Databases,” which she has been writing for ten years.

Discusses the introduction of OCLC′s FirstSearch Catalog reference system. Describes the field‐testing of FirstSearch, the hours of operation, the databases available through the system, and the pricing systems that may be employed.

I decided to interview Tarn Dalrymple after reading comments she made about an article intended for the Public Services column. I noticed her protective approach to OCLC services. I could tell that she really feels strongly about OCLC and their references services. But the obvious plus for interviewing Tarn is the opportunity to get an inside perspective of references services at OCLC. During the interview, I asked questions about the past, present, and future of OCLC Reference Service products, along with some miscellaneous items just for fun and interest. Here is what she said.

Discusses the introduction of EPIC as an opportunity to use OCLC as more than a verification tool. Considers the methods and problems of searching through EPIC by subject. Concludes that keyword subject searching as it exists in EPIC is a complement to traditional subject heading searching, but is not by itself enough to search such a large and complex database.