Suncat NWLIP May 2008

North West Libraries Interlending Partnership, May 2008

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Introduction to SUNCAT

SUNCAT: the Serials UNion CATalogue for the UK

Research Community

Zena Mulligan

SUNCAT Project Officer

EDINA National Data Centre

http://www.suncat.ac.uk


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Overview• WHY SUNCAT was developed

• WHO is involved in SUNCAT

• HOW SUNCAT works • WHAT is included in and the scope of SUNCAT

• WHO can SUNCAT help

• HOW to get the most out of SUNCAT

• WHERE to get more information and help

• WHAT are the future plans for SUNCAT

• HOW would you like to see SUNCAT develop?


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Background

• UKNUC Feasibility Study - 2001

– Serials Report: Tony Kidd, Rob Bull


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UKNUC Feasibility Study

“When users were asked how often they would wish to use a UKNUC for various different purposes, the idea of locating all journals in a particular subject area achieved the highest score among most groups of researchers, with support ranging from 72% to 95%, the highest score reached in response to this question. This is a definite indication of the need and support for a Serials National Union Catalogue.”

UKNUC Feasibility Study, April 2001


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Background• UKNUC Feasibility Study - 2001

– Serials Report: Tony Kidd, Rob Bull

• SUNCAT Scoping Study - 2002

– Information Power Ltd.

• JISC & RSLP funded

• Purpose - to develop a UK Serials Union Catalogue

• Phase 1 – February 2003-December 2004

• Phase 2 – January 2005-December 2006

– Pilot Service January 2005

– Full Service August 2006

• Phase 3 – 2007 onwards (JISC funded)

• Partnership between the University of Edinburgh, through EDINA, & Ex Libris

• Associate Partners - Cambridge, Glasgow, National Library of Scotland, Oxford


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SUNCAT Management

• EDINA Co-directors of SUNCAT

Peter BurnhillChristine Rees

• Ex LibrisJulie BoothGeorg Heiming

• Steering Group

• Bibliographic Quality Advisory Group


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SUNCAT Team

– Manager:• Fred Guy (EDINA)

– Systems Librarian: • Morag Macgregor (EDINA)

– Bibliographic Work: • Natasha Aburrow-Jones (EDINA)• Moira Whitson (EDINA)• Nicola Osborne (EDINA)

– User Requirements Work:• Zena Mulligan p/t (EDINA)• Liz Stevenson p/t (Edinburgh University

Library)


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SUNCAT aims

• SUNCAT: freely available service– For researchers & librarians, a single tool for the

location of serials, including information about access

– For librarians, a central repository of high quality bibliographic records for downloading to local catalogues

• Additionally - to raise consciousness of the importance of quality serials information among UK researchers and librarians


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SUNCAT: How does it work?

• Centralised union catalogue

• Records stored in one large database

• Records deduplicated to view using Aleph functionality

• “Preferred” bibliographic record displayed with associated holdings


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“Preferred” bibliographic record

Libraries’ holdings

Shelfmark

Summary holdings statement

Online?

Save/email record

Find similar

View “non-preferred records”

Links to libraries’ websites

Deep linking to local library catalogues


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What does SUNCAT Contain

"Serials" can be described as "... continuing resources, ... successively issued". They can include " ... integrating [resources] (e.g., updating loose-leafs, updating Web sites). A serial can also include "... the following categories of finite resources (i.e., those with a predetermined conclusion): resources that exhibit characteristics of serials, such as successive issues, numbering, and frequency, but whose duration is limited (e.g., newsletters of events); reprints of serials; and finite integrating resources.“

AACR2


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What does SUNCAT contain?

• Whatever contributing libraries define as a serial in their local catalogues

• No article level information

• Antiquarian and current titles

• Print and electronic serials


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Contributing Libraries• Aberdeen University• Birmingham University• Bolton University• Bristol University• British Geological Survey• British Library• Cambridge University• Cardiff University• Cranfield University• Dundee University• Durham University• Edinburgh College of Art• Edinburgh University• Essex University• Exeter University • Glasgow University• Hull University• Imperial College London• Institute of Engineering & Technology• Kent University• King's College London• Lancaster University• Leeds University• Liverpool University• London Business School• London School of Economics & Political

Science• London School of Hygiene & Tropical

Medicine• Manchester Metropolitan University• Manchester Public Libraries• Manchester University• Napier University• National Art Library• National Library of Scotland

•National Library of Wales •National Maritime Museum •National Museum Wales•Natural History Museum•Newcastle University•Nottingham University •Oxford University•Queen's University Belfast•Reading University•Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh•Royal Botanic Garden, Kew•Royal College of Music•Royal College of Nursing •Royal Geographical Society•Royal Institute of British Architects•Royal Society•Royal Society of Medicine•School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London •Sheffield Hallam University •Sheffield University •Society of Antiquaries of London•Southampton University•St Andrews University •Sussex University •University College, London•University of East Anglia •University of London Research Libraries•University of Wales, Swansea •Warwick University•Wellcome Library •Women's Library, London Metropolitan University •York University•Zoological Society of London


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Currency

Up-to-date information vital

• New serials held

• Amendments to existing records, e.g. changes of title

• Serials discontinued

• Changes to holdings


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Who can SUNCAT help?

• Researchers– Anyone seeking information about serials held in

research libraries in the UK

• Library and information staff– Serials librarians– Reference and enquiry librarians– Liaison librarians– Collection management librarians– Cataloguers– And of course Inter-Library loan librarians


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Focus on Inter-Library Loans I

• SUNCAT is freely available at the point of use

• SUNCAT contains serials holdings information from 66 UK research libraries including the British Library and is continuing to expand

• SUNCAT contains over 5 million records


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Focus on Inter-Library Loans II

You can use SUNCAT to…

• Verify if you have the correct details for an ILL request

• Check if a particular serial is held in the UK

• Find where a particular serial is held in the UK

• Verify that a serial is NOT held locally

• Tailor searches to specific geographic areas or libraries, e.g. North of England

• Save/email records for future reference

• Streamline workflow

• Reduce the number of requests which need to be sent abroad or are unfulfilled


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Advanced Search or Browse

Fields to search

Limit to geographic area or particular library

Phrase search


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Records ordered by title.

Options to sort by year or author.

Information includes title, author, first year of publication and list of holding libraries.


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Bibliographic record inc

•ISSN

•Publication details

•Change of title

View records supplied by all holding libraries

OpenURL button to local resolver


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Holdings from the British Library

Holdings details include

•Name of Library

•Shelfmark

•Summary holdings statement

•Online availability


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Demo for ILL

Demo for ILL


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SUNCAT Information & Help

• SUNCAT websitehttp://www.suncat.ac.uk

• Training guides

• Submitting queries

• Blog

• Promotional material


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Background information, description & scope

Login

Links to related services

SUNCAT standards & information for contributing libraries

Guides & FAQ

News, articles & presentations

Contact us


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SUNCAT Information & Help

• SUNCAT websitehttp://www.suncat.ac.uk

• Training guides

• Submitting queries

• Blog

• Promotional material


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Future Developments I

• Improve data quality

– Currency

– Increase coverage• Number of titles• Geographic• Specialist collections• Types of libraries

– Reduce duplication

– Increase record downloading facility


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Manual Intervention

QUALITY

Identification of Non-Matched records (report)

Identification of ‘mis-matched’ records

SUNCAT Team & Contributing Libraries

Use of Assisted Matching via Librarians’ Interface


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Future Developments II

• Service enhancements– OpenURL linking– Links to local catalogue records & holdings

• Integration with the wider Information Environment– Discovery to Delivery (JISC Project)– Electronic Table of Contents– Scholarly Communications website


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Future Developments III

• Web 2.0

• Personalisation


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How would you like to see SUNCAT develop?• Do you currently use SUNCAT as part of your ILL

workflow?• If not, will you now consider using SUNCAT?• How can SUNCAT be developed to assist ILL librarians?• How useful is it to have the list of libraries holding titles

included on the list of search results?• How useful would it be for SUNCAT to include links from

SUNCAT holdings to the equivalent holdings records on libraries’ local catalogues?

• How useful would you find links from SUNCAT records to Table of Contents services, e.g. Zetoc?

• How desirable would it be for SUNCAT to integrate ILL request mechanisms?

• How desirable would it be to have a more integrated presentation and access to services such as SUNCAT, COPAC and the Intute Repository Search?

• How desirable would it be for SUNCAT to include?– More or all UK HE libraries– More public libraries– More specialist libraries


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SUNCAT: the Serials UNion CATalogue for the UK Research Community

Zena Mulligan

SUNCAT Project Officer

EDINA National Data Centre

http://www.suncat.ac.uk

Suncat NWLIP May 2008

Economy & Finance

uknuc feasibility

royal botanic

serials union

suncat project

suncat information

local catalogues

national library

royal college