SUNCAT

1. SUNCAT the UK Serials UNion CATalogue Report of Plans & Progress to the Phase 1 Libraries Peter Burnhill director, EDINA national data centre on behalf of the SUNCAT Project Partners: University of Edinburgh & Ex Libris

2. Presentation Overview Who? (Introductions) Sponsors, Project Partners & Team What? (The SUNCAT) Background An Actual, as ‘Preview’ How? (The Project) Strategy Project progress

3. Sponsors • The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) • The Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) SUNCAT Steering Committee Chair: Professor Derek Law (JCCS; UofStrathclyde) Secretary: Chris Awre (JISC) with representatives of the JISC, the RSLP, the British Library and the wider academic community JISC

4. Project Partnership Project Partners: University of Edinburgh (Lead Partner; EDINA/EUL) Ex Libris Associate Partners: National Library of Scotland University of Glasgow Libraries at Oxford University Libraries at Cambridge University Contributing (Phase 1) Partners: The larger university & research libraries in the UK About 22 in total

5. Project Team Project Manager: Dr Leah Halliday ALEPH/Systems: Dr Noam Kaminer& Julia Goldshtein (Ex Libris) User Requirements:Liz Stevenson (EUL) with Tony Kidd (Glasgow Univ Library) Project Officer (50%):Nathalie Schulz * Special Advisor: Slawek Rozenfeld ** Bibliographic Quality Advisory Group:Chair, Alason Roberts (EUL) Hugh Taylor (Cambridge), Susan Miles (Oxford), John Nicklen (NLS), Hugh Croll (EUL), Slawek Rozenfeld & Nathalie Schulz (EDINA) * Her other 50% is as Secretary to Revision Committee for AACR ** He was formerly Head of Computing at ISSN-IC

6. Team Strength: Commitment to Serials • service-imperative & project competence eg EDINA with SALSER, CASA & links to European union catalogues, SUNCAT Scoping Study, ISSN authority file, JOIN-UP & inter-working with others in JISC Information Environment • expertise in database and linking technologies eg Ex Libris with cost-effective solutions & leading-edge experience of ‘non-proprietary’ inter-operability in global information industry • expertise in serials cataloguing, MARC21 eg Heads of Serials & Cataloguing at NLS, Oxford, Cambridge & Edinburgh + other experts • expertise in ‘coal-face’ needs, nationally & locally eg EUL & GUL with collection & use; electronic; print; DocDel; UKSG, Journals Working Group,UKNUC Feasibility Study, SALSER

7. SUNCAT: Overall Aims & Timetable • Key online UK facility for researchers, whether staff or student, to locate journals & the like [in other than their local university library] • Central source of high-quality records that enables cost-effective upgrade of local records at UK university and college libraries Timetable: • Go-ahead for Phase 1 (two-years) was given in February 2003. 20+ larger research libraries • Prepare for Phase 2, two-years from January 2005. 200+ libraries in higher education • Aim for a test service during this calendar year, 2003. • ‘Quick-start’ strategy depends upon your co-operation and support.

8. Background to SUNCAT (1) quality of serials data is fundamental - to effective operation of UK digital library - for both delivery of electronic content & location of print. • Present state is highly variable and mostly poor • Need for UK ‘locate’ facility for physical collections of serials

9. Background to SUNCAT (2) The UKNUC Feasibility & SUNCAT Scoping Studies • overview and spur to action; established that SUNCAT is both wanted and feasible • We are building on this in our ‘user requirements’ • key role for ISSN as linch-pin in the serials value chain • use of CONSER as means to upgrade local records • SUNCAT to fit within JISC Information Environment ITT: the national serials union catalogue for the UK education and research community • an information source & a ‘shared service’

10. Defining SUNCAT • ‘A modern serials union catalogue, not a document supply business’‘Serials-level information, not article level information’ 1. UK ‘locate’ facility for (physical) collections of serials2.Source of high quality records to enhance local catalogues Focus on print holdings (hence Humanities) & on STM (hence recent) - but that means older material matters, but also can’t ignore electronic • a ‘physical’ core of centralised, slowly-changing information: eg description + location (who has what serial?) • linked to distributed, more rapidly-changing information, stored locallyeg circulation status • linked via BALSA to JOIN-UP & other services • to be used by, and to make use of, other services in JISC IE

11. Designing & Building SUNCAT (1) • We have examined what a Serials UNion CATalogue needs, in terms of: • [serials] information content • scope [what is the union to be of?] • functionality [users and uses + performance characteristics] • We see the key success factors for SUNCAT as: • critical mass in terms of serials coverage • high quality bibliographic records, including the ISSN • the means to enable cost-effective upgrade of local records, inc ISSN • a technology platform that will scale

12. Important features for a serials union catalogue • Multilingual content: Multiscript & Bi-Directional • Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Cyrillic and CJK in production • Cataloguing functionality • Multiple schemas for import MARC21, UKMARC, UNIMARC,…(other ISO 2709) • Online/batch conversion/fix routines e.g. UK-MARC->MARC21 • Automatic Transliteration of Chinese into Pinying • Field/Record verification e.g. mandatory, protected, repeated,… • Augmentation of record Hierarchical-, Parallel links , external data • Multi-Lingual Thesaurus • Indexing on any field … that the choice of ALEPH allows

13. Designing & Building SUNCAT (2) • We will therefore: • prioritise the development of data, not of software • accept de facto definitions of serial (for input) • deploy ALEPH Union, as extant & proven union catalogue software e.g. Californian Digital Library (replacement for ‘Melvyl’) • aim for a quick-start & an early launch of a pilot service Glimpse of something prepared earlier …

14. Actual Example (taken from CDL)

15. Displays Brief Records for ‘Hits’

16. Display of Full Record

17. Back to Project Planning • Project manager now transforming ‘indicative project plan’ into an actual project plan (due end of April): • project management structure • work package leaders • timetable & target deliverables • project reporting • staff recruitment • contracts & payment • partnership agreement

18. Early activities: Report as at 7th April • Data model being reviewed • Identification • Bibliographic description/expression • Holdings: Indicative/Full statement • Hardware already in place Sun Enterprise 6500, called ‘nevis’: 18 processors & 18 Gb memory • ALEPH 500 software now installed First EDINA/Ex Libris meeting in mid-March, next due this coming Friday • Orders have been placed for ISSN database & CONSER database • Reaching agreement & endorsement on ‘quality’ & standards Bibliographic Quality Advisory Group held first meeting on Friday 28 March • Establishing web ‘presence’ for SUNCAT • Now holding our first meeting with the Phase 1 Libraries … • nominated contact for each, will follow up with technical enquiries

19. ‘Quick Start’ data strategy Install ISSN & CONSER databases as priority National Library of Scotland database 110,000 records, of which 65,000 are ‘good quality’ longstanding experience of USMARC/MARC21 Libraries at Universities of Oxford & Cambridge as ‘BetaTest’ & ‘proof of concept’ sites Consider ‘easy-load’ of ALEPH 500 sites Nottingham, Bristol & British Library Identify & resolve technical problems with each Contributing Partner Determine order and procedures for all Phase 1 participants …

20. Contact www.edina.ac.uk/projects www.suncat.ac.uk to be website URL EDINA HelpDesk Email: edina@ed.ac.uk Tel: 0131 650 3302 Fax: 0131 650 3308 Liz Stevenson (User Requirements) Leah Halliday (Project Manager) Peter Burnhill (Project Director) Chris Awre(JISC Contact) c.awre@kcl.ac.uk