Information for Librarians

Benefits

SUNCAT can benefit librarians in a range of roles including:

  • Inter-library loan librarians can use SUNCAT to locate serials held in the UK
  • Cataloguers can consult MARC records on SUNCAT, including CONSER records and Contributing Libraries can download records from SUNCAT
  • Serials librarians can use SUNCAT to check on the details of serials held in the UK
  • Collection managers can use SUNCAT to determine information about their serials collection, including the number of unique serials held in their library and any overlap with other contributing libraries which may be of interest on a geographic or subject level basis and to libraries participating in the UKRR aiming to store and preserve low use research serials.
  • Reference/Enquiry staff can use SUNCAT to help their users locate particular serials and find out about the existence of serials in a particular subject area
  • How to integrate SUNCAT into your library website and services

Case Studies

SUNCAT Bibliographic Standards

One of the main aims of SUNCAT is to improve the quality of serials bibliographic records in library catalogues throughout the UK. The 2001 UKNUC study (PDF file - 721 kb) reported that the variable quality of serials bibliographic data was a major barrier to researchers finding serials held in the UK. SUNCAT already contains a large number of high quality records from CONSER and from contributing libraries. Libraries contributing their records to SUNCAT will be asked to review the quality of any of the unique serials records they supply so that in the long term SUNCAT will contain at least one good quality bibliographic record for every title on the catalogue. Contributing libraries can download records from SUNCAT so that serials data is improved in both SUNCAT and local library catalogues.

The SUNCAT Bibliographic Team in conjunction with the Bibliographic Quality Advisory Group devised two standards in respect to the serials records on SUNCAT. The standards are based on MARC however SUNCAT does accept serials records from non-MARC libraries.

The entry standard is a low level standard designed to allow as many libraries as possible to contribute their serials records to SUNCAT.

The upgrading standard is based on the CONSER minimum level standard and is the level to which contributing libraries will be asked to upgrade their unique records to

Contributing Libraries

How to contact SUNCAT team

Contact us at: edina@ed.ac.uk
EDINA, Causewayside House
160 Causewayside, Edinburgh
United Kingdom EH9 1PR

EDINA is the Jisc-designated national data centre at the University of Edinburgh.

jisc logo