UKSG, 29-31 March 2004 SUNCAT Briefing Session UKSG Conference March 29-31 2004

UKSG, 29-31 March 2004

SUNCAT

Briefing Session

UKSG Conference March 29-31 2004

www.suncat.ac.uk


Background

• UKNUC Feasibility Study

– Serials Report: Tony Kidd, Rob Bull

• SUNCAT Scoping Study

– Information Power Ltd.

• JISC & RSLP funded

• Purpose - to develop a UK Serials Union Catalogue

• Phase 1 – February 2003-December 2004

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

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


Online Union Catalogues in the UK

• Arlis.net

• CAIRNS – Cooperative Academic Information Retrieval Network for Scotland

• COPAC

• InformM25

• IPCat – Italian Periodicals Catalogue

• RIDING:Z39.50 Gateway to Yorkshire Libraries

• SALSER

• UK Japanese Union Catalogue

• UK Union Catalogue of Chinese Books


Project management

• Project Director: Peter Burnhill (EDINA)• Project Manager: Leah Halliday (EDINA)• Aleph/Systems: Noam Kaminer & Julia Goldshtein

(Ex Libris)• Software Engineer: Morag Macgregor (EDINA)• Special Advisor: Slawek Rozenfeld


Work Packages

– Bibliographic Work Package: • Nathalie Schulz (EDINA)• Natasha Aburrow-Jones (EDINA)

– User Requirements Work Package• Liz Stevenson (Edinburgh University Library) • Tony Kidd (Glasgow University Library)• Zena Mulligan (EDINA)


Steering Committee

• Chair: Derek Law (JCCS, University of Strathclyde)

• Secretary: Chris Awre (JISC) • Chris Bailey (University of Glasgow) • Peter Burnett (University of Oxford)• Margaret Coutts (University of Kent)• Pat Crocker (JISC) • Clive Field (British Library) • Andrew Green (National Library of Wales) • Ronald Milne (University of Oxford) • Geoff Smith (British Library)


Bibliographic Quality Advisory Group (BQAG)

Chair: Alason Roberts (University of Edinburgh)

• Hugh Croll (University of Edinburgh)• Tony Kidd (University of Glasgow)• Sue Miles (University of Oxford)• John Nicklen (National Library of Scotland)• Slawek Rozenfeld (Special Advisor)• Nathalie Schulz (EDINA) • Hugh Taylor (University of Cambridge)


Advisory Group

• Chair: Peter Burnett (SUNCAT Steering Committee)

• Frances Boyle (JIBS User Group)• Caroline Brazier (British Library)• Alan Hopkinson (SCONUL)• Shirley Perry (CURL)• Peter Sudell (Aleph User Group)• Hazel Woodward (UKSG)


User requirements

• SUNCAT: primary aims– Location of serials, including information about

access– Source of high quality bibliographic records for

downloading to local catalogues

• Requirement to interoperate with other resources and services


Content

• During Phase 1, the Project is working with serials data from 22 UK research libraries to establish a critical mass of titles , with good geographical coverage and as wide a subject spread as possible

• ISSN Register & CONSER [Cooperative Online Serials Programme]

• Ex Libris Aleph 500 software, already used by other Union Catalogues, notably the California Digital Library


Contributing Libraries

• Cluster 1: Associate PartnersNational Library of Scotland (115k)University of Cambridge (206k)University of Edinburgh (28k)University of Oxford (182k)

• University of Glasgow (26k)



• Cluster 2

Imperial College, London (29k)London School of Economics (43k)Queens University, Belfast (22k)University of Birmingham (45k)University of Durham (20k)University of Leeds (28k)University of Manchester (33k)University of Newcastle (17k)

• British Library (DSC records – 420k)



• Cluster 3

Manchester Metropolitan University (13k)National Library of Wales (71k)University College, London (33k)University of Bristol (24k)University of Nottingham (27k)University of Southampton (25k)University of Warwick (30k)University of Wales, Cardiff (to be confirmed)


SUNCAT Bibliographic Work Outline

• How does SUNCAT work?

• Work to date

• Work in progress


How does SUNCAT work?Conceptual background

• Terminology– FRBR (Functional Requirements of Bibliographic

Records)

• Identifiers– Local control numbers– ISSN– SC-ID

• See “SUNCAT: a modern serials union catalogue for the UK” by Peter Burnhill et al. Serials 17(1), March 2004.


How does SUNCAT work?General

• Centralised union catalogue

• Records stored in one large database

• Records deduplicated to view using Aleph functionality

• Records are not permanently merged


How does SUNCAT work?Matching

1. Matching algorithm– identification of candidate pool– algorithm applied, with points threshold for a

match

2. Selection of preferred record for display– different points system determines which record

is preferred

3. Composition of display record– the preferred record has elements from non-

preferred records added for display (including holdings)


Work to dateData loading

Data files– CONSER– ISSN

Contributing Library files– conversion specifications– normalisation of holdings


Work to dateMatching testing

• Existing Aleph algorithm developed with the California Digital Library (Melvyl)

• Table of common titles

• New release of Aleph software in May


Work to dateStandards

• Work with the BQAG to develop standards– Entry standard– Upgrading standard

“Behind the scenes”

• Indexing

• Locations information


Work in progressContributing Libraries Matching results

• Most libraries will have a mix of full and brief records

• Brief records may still match - but incorrect or missing data may prevent a match

• Libraries will be asked to check matching, in particular “unique” records


Work in progressUpdates and deletions

• Initial contributions need to be updated, with new, changed and deleted records

• Investigating how this will occur in Aleph

• User requirements work on frequency and method


Work in progressUpgrading

• SUNCAT as a source of high quality catalogue records

• Poor quality preferred records and unique records will be identified, and libraries asked to upgrade

• Upgrades to be included with updates


Work in progressDownloading

• Investigating use of Z39.50

• IPR issues

Notifications

• The ITT for SUNCAT included notification of updates to CONSER and ISSN records

• User requirements to be specified


Electronic journals

• Inclusion mandated by the ITT

• Increasing proportion of holdings are electronic

• Growing archives of back files

• Preliminary survey of current practice

• Single or separate records

• Access and holdings: subscription information


Interface

• User requirements – display and functionality• Accessibility and Usability

• Aleph 500 already deployed for other union catalogues

• Dialogue with California Digital Library, and review of other Union Catalogue OPACs

• User testing


SUNCAT development schedule

• Phase 2 January 2005-December 2006– Expansion of service to include data from 200+

contributing libraries

• Phase 3 2007-– Steady state service


SUNCAT at UKSG

EDINA stand

Monday 29 March: 5p.m.-6p.m.Tuesday 30 March: 1p.m.-1.45p.m.Tuesday 30 March: 3.15p.m.-3.45p.m.

Contactswww.suncat.ac.uk

Nathalie [email protected]

Liz [email protected]

Documents

UKSG, 29-31 March 2004 SUNCAT Briefing Session UKSG Conference March 29-31 2004