Downloading Facility of MARC Records via Z39.50 for SUNCAT Contributing Libraries
What is Z39.50
Z39.50 is a standard which allows systems, such as databases, catalogues and search engines to communicate directly so that users can search remote targets from their local, institutional or preferred system interface. More information on Z39.50 is available at http://www.loc.gov/z3950/agency/
The following information is supplied to enable administrators to set up a Z39.50 connection to SUNCAT from their local system.
Searching SUNCAT
There are several options available for connecting to SUNCAT via Z39.50. In order to search the full SUNCAT catalogue please refer to the instructions at http://www.suncat.ac.uk/support/z-target.shtml It is not, however, possible to download MARC records via this freely available connection.
Downloading Records from SUNCAT
We are currently running four parallel services to enable our Contributing Libraries to download records from the SUNCAT catalogue in MARC format.
The first service provides access solely to the CONSER database in MARC format. CONSER is the cooperative online serials cataloguing programme from the US National Library of Congress. SUNCAT has purchased the full CONSER database from the Library of Congress and are therefore able to offer these records free of charge to our Contributing Libraries. There are over one million CONSER records available and these are of high quality and are particularly strong in their coverage of current STM titles. This is provided as a separate service to allow libraries to have quick and convenient access to these high quality records.
The second service provides access to the ISSN Register in addition to the CONSER database. 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 third service provides access to records held by CONSER, the ISSN, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and the following 17 Contributing Libraries:
- Birmingham University
- Bristol University
- British Library
- Cambridge University
- Durham University
- Edinburgh University
- Imperial College, London
- London School of Economics and Political Science
- Manchester University
- National Art Library
- National Library of Scotland
- Natural History Museum
- Oxford University
- Queens University, Belfast
- University College London
- Warwick University
- Wellcome Library
The database is deduplicated with the aim of reducing the number of records for each title and only displaying the preferred or best records available. However, duplicate records do still exist for some titles. If you want to see all the records supplied by the Contributing Libraries for each title, please use the non-deduplicated database.
The fourth service contains records from CONSER, the ISSN, the DOAJ and the 17 Contributing Libraries listed above. This database is not deduplicated so contains all the records supplied by the libraries for each title. If you wish to reduce the number of records returned for each title please use the deduplicated database.
Library Holdings
Please note that all databases containing records from Contributing Libraries contain holdings’ details for these libraries in the MARC records.
We welcome your feedback on using the facility, including any problems you experience or queries regarding configuring the connection for your LMS. Please contact the EDINA helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk in the first instance.
Please use the details below to set up your Z39.50 connection to SUNCAT. Please also check the notes and known issues if you experience any problems.
Z39.50 Connection Details for Downloading CONSER Records Only
| Hostname: | newcat.edina.ac.uk | |
| Port: | 9993 | |
| Database Name: | conser_marc8 | (MARC-8 character encoding) |
| conser_utf8 | (Unicode UTF-8 character encoding). | |
| Authentication String: | SUNCAT username and password (this is the same for both services) | Please contact the EDINA helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk if you have not received your username and password |
Z39.50 Connection Details for Downloading CONSER and ISSN Records
| Hostname: | newcat.edina.ac.uk | |
| Port: | 9993 | |
| Database Name: | SUNCAT_MARC8 | (MARC-8 character encoding) |
| SUNCAT_UTF8 | (Unicode UTF-8 character encoding). | |
| Authentication String: | SUNCAT username and password (this is the same for both services) | Please contact the EDINA helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk if you have not received your username and password |
Z39.50 Connection Details for Downloading CONSER, ISSN, DOAJ and Contributing Library Records (Deduplicated)
| Hostname: | newcat.edina.ac.uk | |
| Port: | 9993 | |
| Database Name: | U-SUNCAT_CL_MARC8 | (MARC-8 character encoding) |
| U-SUNCAT_CL_UTF8 | (Unicode UTF-8 character encoding). | |
| Authentication String: | SUNCAT username and password (this is the same for both services) | Please contact the EDINA helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk if you have not received your username and password |
Z39.50 Connection Details for Downloading CONSER, ISSN, DOAJ and Contributing Library Records (Non-Deduplicated)
| Hostname: | newcat.edina.ac.uk | |
| Port: | 9993 | |
| Database Name: | SUNCAT_CL_MARC8 | (MARC-8 character encoding) |
| SUNCAT_CL_UTF8 | (Unicode UTF-8 character encoding). | |
| Authentication String: | SUNCAT username and password (this is the same for both services) | Please contact the EDINA helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk if you have not received your username and password |
Character Sets
There are two different connections available to SUNCAT, one provides records in MARC-8 character encoding and the second in UTF-8 character encoding
Record Syntaxes
Records are available in the following formats. Please note that B (Brief) and F (Full) are available for all the formats listed below.
| Format | ElementSetNames |
| MARC21 | F, B |
| SUTRS | F, B |
| XML | F, B |
Supported Services
- Init
- Search
- Sort
- Present
- Scan
- Close
- Delete-Result-Set
Supported Attributes
Bib-1 Attribute set
| SUNCAT Index Name | Bib-1 Name | Examples | Use (Attribute 1) |
Structure (Attribute 4) |
| Title | Title | journal of hellenic studies | 4 | 1, 2, 6 |
| ISBN | ISBN | 9780762615353 or 0762615354 | 7 | 1 |
| ISSN | ISSN | 0075-4269 or 00754269 | 8 | 1 |
| System Number | Local number | 005113129 | 12 | 1, 2 |
| Subject Heading(s) | Subject heading | neurology | 21 | 1, 2, 6 |
| Year First Published | Date-publication | 2005 | 31 | 2, 6 |
| Language | Code--language | 3-character MARC21 code list eng fre |
54 | 2, 6 |
| Library | Code--institution |
Library code list StAbUL UkHULL |
56 | 2 |
| Author (Organisation or Conference) | Author | royal society of chemistry | 1003 | 1, 2, 6 |
| Keywords | Any | industrial relations | 1016 | 2, 6 |
| Keywords | Server choice | industrial relations | 1017 | 2, 6 |
| Publisher | Publisher | oxford university press | 1018 | 1, 2, 6 |
| Place of Publication | Place of Publication | paris | 59 | 1, 2, 6 |
Notes:
If all the other searches fail, try a Keywords search.
Author Index
The Author index in SUNCAT includes personal names where these are associated with serials, however these are a very small number compared to the organisation and conference authors.
ISSN/ISBN searching
ISSNs and ISBNs are indexed as complete phrases so although it is possible to search for ISSNs with or without the hyphen, if your system replaces the hyphen with a space this may cause the search to fail.
Keywords: Any/Server choice
The 1016 and 1017 indexes are both mapped to the Keywords index (WRD).
Library Index
The terms indexed are CNS for CONSER and ISS for ISSN, and they are displayed in MARC 852$a.
Browsing
To browse the above indexes please set the Completeness (Attribute 6) value to complete field (value 3)
Relation
(Attribute 2) -- equal (value 3) is available for all indexes.
Position
(Attribute 3) -- any position in field (value 3) is available for all indexes.
Structure
(Attribute 4) -- phrase (value 1), word (value 2) and word list (value 6) are available for the indexes as shown in the table above.
When structure is set to word (value 2) the search can only be composed of a single term as entering multiple terms may cause the search to fail. Therefore, we would recommend setting structure to phrase (value 1) or word list (value 6) thus allowing multiple terms or phrases to be entered as searches.
Truncation
(Attribute 5) -- right truncation (value 1), left truncation (value 2), and do not truncate (value 100) are available on all indexes.
Completeness
(Attribute 6) -- incomplete sub-field (value 1) and complete field (value 3) are available for all indexes.
Limiting a Search
Combining one of the following limits with the above indexes can be useful to reduce the number of search results.
| SUNCAT Index Name | Bib-1 Name | Use (Attribute 1) |
Structure (Attribute 4) |
| Library | Code--institution | 56 | 2 |
| Year First Published | Date-publication | 31 | 2, 6 |
| Language | Code--language | 54 | 2, 6 |
Sort
| SUNCAT Index Name | Bib-1 Name | Use (Attribute 1) |
| Title | Title | 4 |
| Year First Published | Date-publication | 31 |
| Author (Organisation or Conference) | Author | 1003 |
Notes:
Please note that the default sort option on the Aleph 500 Z39.50 gateway is by system number. We have asked that this be changed to sorting by title, however we recommend you set your client to automatically sort results in the meantime.
Supported Query Types
Query Type 1 is supported.
Record Provenance
The record provenance is stored as a library code in the 003 field. A list of these codes is available at http://www.suncat.ac.uk/support/Suncat_Library_Codes.html Depending on the Z39.50 client used it may be possible to display the contents of the 003 in the brief record display to enable record provenance to be identified within the search results.
