Introduction to SUNCAT Background to the redevelopment of the service Key enhancements of the new interface Contributing to SUNCAT How SUNCAT can help you and your users Demo of the new service Future plans Feedback and questions Presented by Zena Mulligan at the Interlend 2014 Conference, 23-24 June 2014, Carlton Highland Hotel, Edinburgh.

1. Interlend 2014
Introduction to the New SUNCAT
Interface
http://suncat.ac.uk
Zena Mulligan
(SUNCAT Project Officer, EDINA)
zena.mulligan@ed.ac.uk

2. Outline
• Introduction to SUNCAT
• Background to the redevelopment of the
service
• Key enhancements of the new interface
• Contributing to SUNCAT
• How SUNCAT can help you and your users
• Demo of the new service
• Future plans
• Feedback and questions

3. SUNCAT contains ………….
Community Data:
96 Contributing
libraries
Licensed Data:
ISSN Register &
CONSER
Database
Harvested Data:
Directory of Open
Access Journals
SUNCAT:
Journal Titles (print &
electronic)
Bibliographic & Holdings
Information
Tables of Contents
Table of Contents
(Zetoc &
JournalTocs)

4. Battersea Power
Station Redevelopment

5. Redevelopment factors
• Limitations in software (Aleph 500) with lack of
flexibility
• Jisc provided development funding but Ex Libris
announced that they did not wish to do any more
development work – busy, for example, with
development of Alma
• Wanted to modernise the ‘look and feel’
• Wanted to take advantage of the functionality &
flexibility available with Solr
• Provided the opportunity to be more responsive to
user requirements (revealed, for example, by impact
surveys)

6. Start of
development
Public
preview &
feedback
Public
availability
Primary
interface
Public
survey of
new
interface
Removal
of access
to
original
Aleph
interface
Continuing
improvements
February
2012
April/May
2013
October
2013
March
2014
May/June
2014
July/Aug
2014
July 2014 -
Stages for new interface

7. User Consultation
• Small survey with ILL librarians (May 2008)
• Impact and satisfaction survey with all users (April 2009)
• Downloading service interviews and survey with cataloguers (February
2010)
• Interviews and case studies involving use of SUNCAT by North West
Libraries Interlending Partnership, UK Research Reserve and Loughborough
University (Spring 2011)
• Impact and satisfaction surveys (January 2011, 2012, 2013)
• Short survey with SUNCAT Contributing Libraries on new design for service
(November 2012)
• Beta version of new service made available for general public comment
(Early April – Mid May 2013)
• Public online survey on beta version (Late April – Mid May 2013)
• New service live for public comment (October 2013)
• Online public survey (May – June 2014)
• Continue to welcome comments, feedback and questions via the “Contact”
link on the SUNCAT pages or via the EDINA Helpdesk edina@ed.ac.uk

8. Key Enhancements to the New Interface 1
Core Functionality Enhancements
Web based interface Improved responsiveness for mobile
devices
Website with supporting
information
No login required, link directly to the
search page, but with links to all the
website content.
Map listing the main locations of
Contributing Libraries
New map highlighting ALL the
locations of the Contributing
Blog link on website Feed of latest blog posts onto basic
search
Basic search option Basic search – same indexes to
search on as before, plus auto
suggestions as you enter your search
Limit your search by a particular
library
Limit your search to any number of
libraries
Limit your search by a geographic
location
Limit your search to any number of
locations and to more specific
locations
View your results Choose how many results to display
per page
Results sorted by title Results sorted by relevance with
option to sort by title or year

9. Key Enhancements to the New Interface 2
Core Functionality Enhancements
Indication of holding libraries in
results screen
Alphabetical list of holdings libraries
in results screen
Full results list Filtering by institution, subject,
publisher, first year of publication etc.
Display full bibliographic details,
with links to related searches
As before, but with alphabetical links
to all the records in the set
Links to latest ToCs from Zetoc Links to latest and older ToCs from
Zetoc & JournalTOCs
List of holding libraries with
shelfmarks and summary holdings
As before with links to local library
catalogues
Links to holding libraries’
homepages
Links to homepages, Google
directions, general contact details,
British Library codes and ILL contact
details and details of when last
updated in SUNCAT
Advanced search option Additional flexibility to create more
complex searches
Additional pre-search filters by
language & year
New format filter enabling filtering to
electronic only or print only material
Search history and ability to
mark/email records
Search history and ability to
mark/email records

10. NHS Birmingham, July
Links out to information, help
and support guides, videos,
FAQs etc. on website
Map showing
all the
locations of
Contributing
Libraries
Latest
feed from
the
SUNCAT
Blog

11. NHS Birmingham, July
Auto suggestions
made as you
enter your
search

12. NHS Birmingham, July
Limit your search
to particular
geographic
locations

13. NHS Birmingham, July
Limit your
search to
particular
libraries
You can combine
location and
library limits

14. NHS Birmingham, July
Choose how many
records to display
per page
Results relevance
ranked but you can
click on “Title” to sort
alphabetically or on
“First published” to
sort chronologically
Results include
alphabetical list
of libraries
holding each title
Filter your results by
institution, subject,
publisher etc.

15. NHS Birmingham, July
Preferred record
showing bibliographic
details including:
• ISSN
• Publication details
• Subject headings
You can also
view all the
bibliographic
records in
the set.
Click on the “Table of Contents”
button to see recently published
articles via Zetoc and JournalTocs

16. NHS Birmingham, July
Holdings info includes:
• Alphabetical list of holding
libraries
• Shelfmarks
• Online availability
• Summary holdings
• Links to institutions local
catalogues
Click on the library name to
get further details

17. NHS Birmingham, July
Details include:
• Link to library homepage
• Link to Google map &
directions
• General contact details
• ILL details
• Latest update received

18. Advanced Search includes:
• Wider range of indexes than basic search
• Ability to search or any of terms entered rather than
default of all
• Ability to exclude terms
• Ability to combine terms across indexes
• Additional limits, including e-journals or print

19. Contributing to SUNCAT
• SUNCAT is contributing to expand
• Interested in hearing from any UK library holding scholarly journals
• Keen to add:
– More HE libraries
– More specialist libraries with unique collections
– More public libraries
– Improve the geographic coverage
– Groups/consortia wishing to create mini union catalogues
• Contributing is a very simple process
– Complete a questionnaire about your data
– Send a file of your serials
– Send regular updates
– Add links and information about SUNCAT to your website
• Benefits include:
– Increase exposure of your collections
– Enable your colleagues and users to search your collections alongside those of nearly 100
other libraries
– Free download of MARC21 records to upgrade your local catalogue
– Compare your journal collections with nearly 100 other libraries

20. Support and information about SUNCAT
• SUNCAT website at http://suncat.ac.uk
• Information about the service
– Description and coverage
– Case studies
– How to contribute
– How to integrate SUNCAT into your services and website
– Downloading MARC records
• Quick start, search guides and FAQs
• Introductory video
• Blog at http://suncat.blogs.edina.ac.uk/
• Follow us on Twitter at @suncatteam

21. Who can SUNCAT help?
• Researchers, postgrads, undergrads, academic
and support staff
– Anyone seeking information about serials held in
research libraries in the UK
• Library and information staff
– Serials librarians
– Reference and enquiry librarians
– Liaison librarians
– Collection management librarians
– Cataloguers
– And of course Inter-Library loan librarians

22. Assisting All Users: Library Staff, Researchers, Undergrads…
• Add SUNCAT as a target in your URL resolver – give your
users other options if full text isn’t immediately available to
them

23. Assisting All Users: Library Staff, Researchers, Undergrads…
• Add a SUNCAT link to your catalogue or discovery
service

24. How can SUNCAT support Interlending?
“In the case of journal collections, about half of all respondents–slightly
more in the arts and humanities than in other fields–strongly agreed that
they “often would like to use journal articles that are not in [their]
library’s print or digital collections.”
(P.38)
Ithaka S+R, Jisc, RLUK
UK Survey of Academics 2012
http://www.sr.ithaka.org/sites/default/files/reports/UK_Survey_of_Acade
mics_2012.pdf

25. Assisting with Inter-library Loans
You can use SUNCAT to…
• Verify if you have the correct details for an ILL request
• Check if a particular serial is held in the British Library or elsewhere in the UK
• Verify that a serial is NOT held locally
• Tailor searches to specific geographic areas or libraries, e.g. London, or your
choice of libraries
• Limit your search to non-electronic holdings only
• View the exact volumes and issues a library holds
• Instantly see the British Library codes and ILL contact details for particular library
locations
• Save/email records for future reference
• Streamline workflow
• Reduce the number of requests which need to be sent abroad or are unfulfilled

26. ILL Case Study: North West Libraries Interlending Partnership

27. Demo of new look service

28. Future plans
• Continue to add more contributing libraries
• Replacement of ‘back end’ software
– Enhance matching algorithm and reduce duplication
• Add to interface functionality
– Tailored views of the database or mini union catalogues
– Holdings comparison facilities
– My SUNCAT
– Links to the Keepers Registry, JUSP and KB+

30. Further integration with other JISC Services
Journal Usage
Statistics Portal

31. How Can SUNCAT Support You Better?
• What additional features or information could we add to
the service?
• Is there anything you don’t like in the new look service?
• Any suggestions for new SUNCAT Contributing Libraries?
• Are you part of a library consortia or group who would
benefit from a mini-union catalogue of serials?
• How and where else can we reach those involved with
interlending?

32. Thank You!
Any questions?
Please contact
zena.mulligan@ed.ac.uk or
edina@ed.ac.uk

33. Acknowledgements
Battersea Power Station Redevelopment
License Some rights reserved by benjicarter
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