Introduction to SUNCAT

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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 Burnhill
• Christine Rees
• Ex Libris
• Julie Booth
• Georg 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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Save/email record
Preferred bibliographic record
Find similar
View non-preferred records
Shelfmark
Online?
Summary holdings statement
Libraries holdings
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

• 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

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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
Phrase search
Limit to geographic area or particular library
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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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OpenURL button to local resolver

• Bibliographic record inc
• ISSN
• Publication details
• Change of title

View records supplied by all holding libraries
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Demo for ILL
Demo for ILL
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SUNCAT Information Help

• SUNCAT website
• http//www.suncat.ac.uk
• Training guides
• Submitting queries
• Blog
• Promotional material

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Contact us
Background information, description scope
SUNCAT standards information for contributing
libraries
Login
Links to related services
Guides FAQ
News, articles presentations
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SUNCAT Information Help

• SUNCAT website
• http//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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QUALITY
Manual Intervention
Identification of Non-Matched records (report)
Identification of mis-matched records
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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