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The concept of a national catalogue. Jean Sykes Librarian and Director of Information Services, LSE Director, CC Interop Project. The UKNUC Feasibility Study 2000 - 2001. Two surveys: one with academics and research students, one with librarians System testing, including Z clumps
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The concept of a national catalogue Jean Sykes Librarian and Director of Information Services, LSE Director, CC Interop Project
The UKNUC Feasibility Study 2000 - 2001 • Two surveys: one with academics and research students, one with librarians • System testing, including Z clumps • Aims: to find out how an UKNUC might be used, what functions it could perform, and which technologies were appropriate • Sponsors: JISC, RSLP, BL
Concertation Day February 2001 – a mixed reception • Was the concept too HE focused? • Would regional catalogues be better? Or subject ones? • What about rare books, archives, maps, non-print materials? • Serials important, not monographs • Waste of public money – just use BL catalogue and OCLC?
UKNUC report published April 2001 • Physical union catalogue preferred to “immature” virtual ones • But UKNUC should be adaptable to include virtual as technology improved • Serials issues quite different from monographs • Major problem of poor standard of bibliographic records for serials • A separate national serials catalogue strongly recommended – priority 1
UKNUC report continued • Foundation catalogues to be: COPAC, BL, 20 cross-sectoral libraries with collections important to research • Links to clumps to be incorporated into foundation architecture from outset along with Z target accessibility • Improved resource discovery facilities for subject, regional, and format searches • The 20 libraries to represent public libraries, special libraries, government and Research Council interests
What about serials? • To start with BL, NLS, NLW and major research libraries • Then some non-CURL libraries and some small specialist institutions • Records to be upgraded as part of the build, and libraries to both input into and benefit from improvements in cataloguing standards • Researchers need access to full text at article level – link to OpenURL initiatives?
SUNCAT • A scoping study was commissioned in early 2002 • Funding for Phase 1 agreed by JISC and RSLP in August 2002 • EDINA with Ex Libris and Edinburgh University Library won the ITT and were awarded £700k for 2 years (2003 –2004) • 22 libraries in first 2 years
SUNCAT continued • Phase 2 funding approved 2005/06 • 100 + further libraries to be added • Focus to be on specialist collections, including older and rarer materials • Phase 3 (2006 -) will be the consolidation phase • User interface needs more work
Relevant national initiatives • JISC’s large-scale resource discovery programme (5/99); 4 clumps projects • COPAC, funded by JISC and CURL (1995 -) • RSLG Report 2003; RLN 2004-07 • JISC’s DNER > Information Environment • JISC’s eLib3 programme – Stephen Pinfield’s report January 2001 • “Further research and development work should be carried out on Z39.50”
Why CC Interop project? • Clumps projects finishing in 2001 • No further JISC funding for Z39.50 projects • UKNUC study recommended a place for Z in a national catalogue as well as COPAC (in due course) • RSLG discussing a national catalogue • Gap in R & D and in funding became obvious (see Stephen Pinfield)
CC Interop May 2002 to April 2004 • 3 partners: MIMAS, InforM25, and CDLR • 3 union catalogues: COPAC, InforM25 and CAIRNS/RIDING; all functioning services • 3 work packages; £227k • Wp A: COPAC and InforM25 • Wp B: CDLR and RIDING • Wp C: User behaviour study
What questions were asked? • How distributed and large physical union catalogues can interact • How to use dynamic landscaping to refine user searches (CLDs to select sub-sets of catalogue) • What interoperability standards are needed • What can we find out about the behaviour of users when they search union catalogues
Overall aims of CC Interop • Reach conclusions re feasibility of inter-linking virtual and physical union catalogues as part of a national catalogue • Identify technical and organisational issues to be addressed in a national catalogue • Inform future developments of a national catalogue in the context of the RLN and the Information Environment
More questions than answers • Like most good research CC Interop raises more questions than it answers • The next speakers will outline the progress made in several aspects of the project • Then we will discuss the future: what further research needs to be done? • And what do you think are the key issues?