Another SUNCAT welcome – to the Royal Agricultural University!

SUNCAT welcomes the Royal Agricultural University, another new Contributing Library, which is based in Cirencester. This takes the total number of libraries in SUNCAT to 106, plus the CONSER database, ISSN register and Directory of Open Access Journals.

We are very pleased to have Emma Williams, Library Operations Manager, introduce the University and Library.

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The Royal Agricultural College (RAC), now the Royal Agricultural University (RAU), is the oldest agricultural college in the English speaking world and has been at the forefront of agricultural education since 1845. More information about the history of the RAU can be found at https://www.rau.ac.uk/about/organisation/history.

Our University’s mission statement is, “To be a centre of excellence for developing the leaders of tomorrow in sustainable development relating to the rural economy, built environment and food chain, and to provide leadership regionally, nationally and internationally through its education, research and knowledge exchange activities.”
It is underpinned by the University’s core values:
• Excellence in academic provision
• Responsibility for personal development
• Collaboration with other HEIs, industry and the professions, and between academic staff and students
• Transparency and inclusivity in its treatment of staff and students

Image of the Royal Agricultural University Library journals section

The Royal Agricultural University Library journals section. (© Royal Agricultural University, 2016)

The library offers access to around 30,000 print volumes, more than 10,000 journal and e-journal titles, more than 130,000 e-books and a growing number of full-text electronic databases, many of which can be searched via our one-stop search facility.
Our main collection is supplemented by a support collection and a fascinating historical collection of texts, primarily on agriculture and estate or land management dating as far back as the 16th century. The library also holds the University archive, an irreplaceable collection of documents relating to the University since its foundation in 1845.
Our journals are catalogued as either academic, magazine or newsletter and despite a general industry shift towards electronic access, our print stock is still very popular with our students. The arrival of our weekly copies of Farmer’s Weekly and Country Life are hotly anticipated.

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SUNCAT would like to thank Emma for writing this post. If you would like to write a post on your SUNCAT Contributing Library and its serials collections or would like to join SUNCAT please contact the EDINA Helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk.