Copac (originally an

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

of Consortium of Online Public Access Catalogues) was a union catalogue which provided free access to the merged online catalogues of many major research libraries and specialist libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland, plus the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

, the

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS) ( gd, Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. As one of the largest libraries in th ...

and the National Library of Wales. It had over 40 million records from around 90 libraries, representing a wide range of materials across all subject areas. Copac was freely available to all, and was widely used, with users mainly coming from Higher Education institutions in the United Kingdom, but also worldwide. Copac was valued by users as a research tool. Copac was searchable through with a web browser or Z39.50 client. It was also accessible through OpenURL and

Search/Retrieve via URL Search/Retrieve via URL (SRU) is a standard search protocol for Internet search queries, utilizing Contextual Query Language (CQL), a standard query syntax for representing queries. SRU, along with the related Search/Retrieve via Web (SRW) servic ...

(SRU) interfaces. These interfaces could be used to provide links to items on Copac from external sites, such as those used on the

Institute of Historical Research The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) is a British educational organisation providing resources and training for historical researchers. It is part of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London and is located at Senate Hous ...

website. Copac was a Jisc service provided for the UK community on the basis of an agreement with

Research Libraries UK Research Libraries UK (RLUK) (formerly CURL) comprises 32 university libraries, 3 national libraries, and the Wellcome Collection in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its aim is to increase the ability of research libraries to share resources amon ...

(RLUK). The service used records supplied by RLUK members, as well as an increasing range of specialist libraries with collections of national research interest. A full list of contributors is available including the

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Middle Temple library and Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) Library. In July 2019, Jisc replaced COPAC with Library Hub Discover.

References

{{authority control Academic libraries in the United Kingdom Bibliographic databases and indexes Databases in the United Kingdom Higher education in the United Kingdom Jisc Library cataloging and classification Online databases

See also

References