A National Union Catalogue for the UK?
A Feasibility Study into a National Union Catalogue for the UK is being
undertaken by a consortium led by the University of Sheffield Library and
including CURL (the Consortium of University Research Libraries), the
University of Glasgow Library and Crossnet Systems.
Fifteen years after the demise of the projected UKLDS (United Kingdom
Library Database System), renewed interest is being shown in the idea of a
National Union Catalogue, spurred on by initiatives such as the eLib phase
3 virtual catalogue 'Clumps' projects, together with the success of
large-scale physical models such as COPAC (the CURL OPAC), and the British
Library's OPAC97.
What started out as librarian-oriented tools for inter-lending have now
become recognised as having major resource discovery potential for end
users: a National Union Catalogue might be expected to list the holdings of
all major libraries in the country and answer questions such as, 'Where is
the nearest copy of a particular book?', 'How many copies of a research
monograph are there in the UK and where are they situated?', 'What are the
key collections in my subject area and in which libraries are they
located?' and 'In which libraries of the region are the scattered runs of a
particular journal title located?'. Additional, co-operative services -
inter-lending, document delivery, reciprocal borrowing - might also arise
from the pooling of resources associated with the creation of such a
'joined-up' catalogue.
The aim of the Feasibility Study is to undertake a review of key issues
that impinge on the creation of a National Union Catalogue for monographs,
serials and other formats (such as archives and manuscripts) for the UK.
The primary focus will be UKHE and national library catalogues and
collections, though the public library sector will also be consulted. A
major component of the Study will be an investigation into the
possibilities of a union serials catalogue for the UK. The Study is being
funded jointly by the Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher
Education Funding Councils (JISC), the Research Support Libraries Programme
(RSLP) and the British Library. The contract was granted in May 2000 and
the final report and recommendations will be submitted by the end of 2000.
Plans are underway for wide consultation with the national library
community and potential end users, particularly staff and researchers in UK
universities. However, if you would like to feed comments into the process,
or for further information, please contact: Peter Stubley, St George's
Library, University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 4DT;
telephone: 0114 222 7327; fax: 0114 279 6406; e-mail:
[log in to unmask] More information, including a list of
Frequently Asked Questions, can be found on the web site for the
Feasibility Study at <http://www.uknuc.shef.ac.uk/>.
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