A union catalog is a combined
library catalog describing the collections of a number of
libraries
A library is a collection of Document, materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or electronic media, digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a ...
. Union catalogs have been created in a range of media, including
book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physi ...
format,
microform,
cards and more recently, networked electronic
databases
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases spa ...
. Print union catalogs are typically arranged by title, author or subject (often employing a
controlled vocabulary); electronic versions typically support keyword and
Boolean queries. Union catalogs are useful to
librarians, as they assist in locating and requesting materials from other libraries through
interlibrary loan
Interlibrary loan (abbreviated ILL, and sometimes called interloan, interlending, document delivery, document supply, or interlibrary services, abbreviated ILS) is a service where patrons of one library can borrow materials and receive photocopies ...
service. They also allow researchers to search through collections to which they would not otherwise have access, such as
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...
collections.
The largest union catalog ever printed is the American ''
National Union Catalog Pre-1956 Imprints'' (NUC), completed in 1981.
This achievement has since been superseded by the creation of union catalogs in the form of electronic databases, of which the largest is
OCLC's
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
. Another example is
COPAC provided by
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 among ...
, which was superseded by Library Hub Discover in 2019. A third example is AMICUS, provided by
Library and Archives Canada.
For academic publications, several
academic search engines
This article contains a representative list of notable databases and search engines useful in an academic setting for finding and accessing articles in academic journals, institutional repositories, archives, or other collections of scientific and ...
exist to combine the
open data
Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license.
The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movement ...
provided by
open archive An open repository or open-access repository is a digital platform that holds research output and provides free, immediate and permanent access to research results for anyone to use, download and distribute. To facilitate open access such repositori ...
s through
OAI-PMH The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) is a protocol developed for harvesting metadata descriptions of records in an archive so that services can be built using metadata from many archives. An implementation of OAI- ...
, as well as records from publishers deposited in
CrossRef and other sources. They include
BASE,
CORE
Core or cores may refer to:
Science and technology
* Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages
* Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding
* Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber
* Core, the centra ...
and Unpaywall, which indexes over 20 million
open access publications as of 2020.
See also
*
OAIster
OAIster is an online combined bibliographic catalogue of open access material aggregated using OAI-PMH.
It began at the University of Michigan in 2002 funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and with the purpose of establishing ...
*
SUNCAT
The Serials Union Catalogue, or SUNCAT, was a freely available source of information about serials holdings in the United Kingdom, for the UK research community.
For both electronic and print serials, including academic journals, periodicals, ne ...
*
Trove
Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...
References
Library catalogues
{{Library-stub