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SUNCAT Updates

In order to act as an effective location service for serials held in the UK it is vital that SUNCAT is kept as current as possible. The SUNCAT team have worked with the Contributing Libraries to set up regular updates and almost all of the libraries are now in regular updating cycles. The table below summarises how updates are supplied to SUNCAT, the frequency of the update cycle and the date the last update was received by SUNCAT.

A small number of the Contributing Libraries are not yet supplying updates to SUNCAT. This may be because the team are still working with the Library to set up their updating cycle or it may be that the Library is currently unable to send regular updates. Where we have additional information we will supply this.

Type of update

Some Contributing libraries supply partial update files to SUNCAT which simply contain information about any changes to the library’s data since their last update, e.g. new serials’ records added, amendments and deletions. However, not all Library Management Systems are able to identify and supply these changes to SUNCAT and in these cases the library sends a full file of all their serials and this is used to replace the previous file on SUNCAT. Further details on supplying updates are available.

Frequency

SUNCAT has negotiated updating schedules with contributing libraries on an individual basis. In the majority of cases libraries send updates monthly, a few send updates more frequently but SUNCAT generally only processes updates once per month. Some smaller libraries, which do not make a large number of changes to their serials’ data, send updates on a less frequent basis, quarterly or bi-annually.