Cataloguing with SUNCAT webinar

Dec 142015
 

We held a “Cataloguing with SUNCAT” webinar at the start of December with around 70 participants from a wide range of UK Higher Education, Further Education, government, NHS and specialist research institutions.

The webinar explained how data is handled in SUNCAT and how libraries benefit from it as a comprehensive source of quality bibliographic data, incorporating a free record downloading service. The session included information on:

  • How easy it is to contribute to SUNCAT
  • How data is sent to SUNCAT from our Contributing Libraries
  • How we deal with standards, e.g. AACR2 & RDA
  • What normalisation occurs and why
  • How SUNCAT can make your cataloguing workflow more efficient
  • Using the free MARC record downloading service

Questions covered bibliographic and holdings details around contributing data to SUNCAT; e-journal interlending; how records can be downloaded into local Library Management Systems; configuring the Z39.50 search results and how the Z39.50 downloading service might be improved.

More details about the webinar including the slides, Q&A and a recording of the session are available at http://www.suncat.ac.uk/news/presentations.html

Please contact the EDINA helpdesk, edina@ed.ac.uk, if you have any questions about issues raised in the webinar.

 December 14, 2015  Posted by at 1:13 pm News Tagged with: , , , , , ,  No Responses »

Finding help and information on SUNCAT

Jun 092014
 

We hope you are finding the new look SUNCAT easy and intuitive to use, but just in case you do experience any problems or are puzzled by anything, we wanted to highlight the following resources:

Context sensitive help is available throughout the service from the “Help” link in the footer of all the pages.

Clicking on the Help & Support link in the main navigation bar along the top of all the pages takes you to a page which includes:

If you can’t find the answer to your query in one of the above please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us via the “Contact” link in the footer of all the SUNCAT pages or by emailing the EDINA Helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk.

 

 June 9, 2014  Posted by at 11:11 am Developments Tagged with: , , , ,  No Responses »

Expansion of record downloading service

Jul 222011
 

The SUNCAT downloading service has been expanded to provide a range of options available to SUNCAT Contributing Libraries. These include the choice of:

  • Downloading MARC records from a database containing CONSER and ISSN records; and
  • Downloading MARC records from a database containing all records from CONSER, ISSN, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and now 17 Contributing Libraries.

A printable guide of search tips, for cataloguers using the Z39.50 connection, is also available.

Please note that the above databases, supplying MARC records, are only available to SUNCAT Contributing Libraries. However, MARC records are freely available to view via the SUNCAT web interface. In addition, there is a free Z39.50 connection to SUNCAT available to anyone who wishes to access the records in Dublin Core XML or SUTRS formats.

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk or the SUNCAT blog at http://suncatblog.blogspot.com
 July 22, 2011  Posted by at 9:48 am Developments Tagged with: ,  No Responses »

Using SUNCAT as an Aid to Cataloguing

Feb 182010
 

SUNCAT provides a Z39.50 connection to high-quality CONSER and ISSN MARC21 records on SUNCAT, enabling our 70 Contributing Libraries to download these records to their local catalogues. This is especially useful when a library is embarking on a retrospective conversion programme. Information about the downloading facility is available on the SUNCAT website. Non Contributing Libraries are also able to consult the MARC records found in SUNCAT and can use these to aid their cataloguing. We are hoping to expand the download service, and are currently surveying our Contributing Libraries about the existing MARC21 records downloading service and how they would like to see this develop.

We now have more than 5 million bibliographic records in SUNCAT (both for print and electronic journals). Approximately 1.2 million CONSER records and 1.4 million ISSN records are available for download.

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk or the SUNCAT blog at http://suncatblog.blogspot.com
 February 18, 2010  Posted by at 4:00 pm News Tagged with: ,  No Responses »

Expansion to MARC downloading service for SUNCAT Contributing Libraries

Aug 142008
 

SUNCAT has just released a second parallel downloading service to complement the initial pilot service introduced last year. Contributing Libraries can continue to access the CONSER only records with their existing connection and configuration, but may now replace this, or add a second connection to the new service, which contains both CONSER and ISSN records and will gradually expand to include Contributing Libraries’ MARC records. The CONSER only database will be maintained to provide libraries with quick and easy access to these high quality records, with the second service providing a more comprehensive coverage of records.

There is no charge for these services, Contributing Libraries can simply visit http://www.suncat.ac.uk/support/z-target-auth.shtml for details on how to set up the Z39.50 connection and start downloading records.

CONSER is the cooperative online serials cataloguing programme coordinated by the US Library of Congress. There are over one million high quality CONSER records on SUNCAT, with particularly strong coverage in current STM titles.

Each ISSN assigned to a serial publication is registered in the ISSN Register and with over one million ISSN numbers assigned, this database is one of the most comprehensive and authoritative sources for the identification of serial publications world-wide.

The facility is only available to SUNCAT Contributing Libraries and therefore a username and password is required to set up the connection. These details remain the same as for the pilot service and have already been sent to the primary SUNCAT contacts at each Contributing Library.

Contributing Libraries should contact the EDINA helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk if they need a reminder of their username/password, experience any problems setting up or using the service or have comments about the service.

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk.
 August 14, 2008  Posted by at 11:07 am Developments Tagged with: , , , , ,  No Responses »

Pilot MARC record download service

Jan 112008
 

Last month we released a pilot downloading facility for SUNCAT Contributing Libraries. The pilot service enables our Contributing Libraries to download a subset of SUNCAT records in MARC format via Z39.50. The records are from CONSER, the Library of Congress Cooperative Online Serials programme.

There are over one million CONSER records available and these are of very high bibliographic quality and are particularly strong in their coverage of current Scientific, Technical and Medical (STM) titles. The records are free of charge to SUNCAT Contributing Libraries, enabling them to download records for newly purchased serials or to upgrade their existing serials records.

We are currently unable to offer the entire SUNCAT database of records in MARC format due to IPR restrictions imposed by a commercial supplier on records supplied to our Contributing Libraries. However, the SUNCAT team are investigating methods of filtering out these records so that we can offer a greater proportion of the SUNCAT database for download.

Details of how to set up and configure the Z39.50 connection are available at http://www.suncat.ac.uk/support/z-target-auth.shtml

Please contact the EDINA helpdesk with any comments or queries about the pilot service.

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk.
 January 11, 2008  Posted by at 11:11 am Developments Tagged with: , ,  No Responses »