Author Archives: SUNCAT Team

SUNCAT Redevelopment: Focus on Post Search Filters

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This is the second in a series of blog posts highlighting some of the new features which will be available in the redeveloped SUNCAT. In this post we are going to focus on how the post search filters will improve the new service, enabling the use of faceted browsing to lead users to the most relevant journal titles and holdings for their needs.

Post search filters will be available from the search results display, down the left hand side of the results list, and will provide similar functionality as you will be familiar with via other discovery services and many commercial shopping and travel websites.

At this point we plan to include the following facets:

  • Institution (the institutions holding the journals returned in the current results list)
  • Format (includes electronic and print formats)
  • Subject
  • Author (organisation associated with journals where relevant)
  • Publisher
  • Year (first published)
  • Place of publication
  • Language
Each filter will also display the number of records in the results set associated with it. The five most common filters from each result set will display for most of the facets, with the option to view decreasingly common filters also available. However, in the case of the institutions facet, filters will be displayed alphabetically to allow you to skim down the list for particular institutions, and in the year facet, filters will be displayed in reverse chronological order.

You will be able to combine filters to drill right down to journal titles matching quite specific criteria, but you will then also be able to simply remove filters to widen your results back up again.

An interesting side effect of displaying the filters is that it is now possible to easily see the variation present in the records supplied to SUNCAT, which goes a long way to explaining why not all the records which we would like to match together do! Part of the next step of the development work will be to try and amalgamate some of the filters so that they display in a more manageable and helpful fashion. For example combining year filters containing no numerical characters, such as “||||”, “uuuu” etc. into one “Unknown” filter. Also publication place filters such as “london”, “London.”, “London,” etc. into one filter for “London”.

You can see the faceted browsing in action on the preview service which will be available until Monday 13th May, so please take a look and let us have your comments via the online survey or by email to edina@ed.ac.uk

The following screenshot shows the filters on the preview service:

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk or the SUNCAT blog at http://suncatblog.blogspot.com

SUNCAT updated

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SUNCAT has been updated. Updates from the following libraries were
loaded into the catalogue in the last week. The dates displayed
indicate when the files were received by SUNCAT.

  • Aberystwyth University (20 Mar 13)
  • Birmingham University (22 Apr 13)
  • Cambridge University (17 Apr 13)
  • CONSER (24 Apr 13) 
  • Durham University (22 Apr 13)
  • Kent University (01 May 13)
  • Leicester University (29 Apr 13)
  • Newcastle University (25 Apr 13)
  • Oxford University (10 Apr 13)
  • Sheffield University (14 Apr 13)
  • St Andrews University (02 Apr 13)
  • Southampton University (28 Apr 13)
  • University of the West of England (UWE) (23 Apr 13)

To check on the currency of other libraries on SUNCAT please check the updates page for further details.

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk or the SUNCAT blog at http://suncatblog.blogspot.com

Feedback on the New Look SUNCAT

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As we posted a few weeks ago a preview of the new look SUNCAT service is available at http://test.suncat.ac.uk and a huge thank you to all who have sent us comments so far.

We’ve now put up a short survey and would be very grateful for your input which will help to guide the ongoing development of the service. If you prefer you can also let us have your comments via the EDINA helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk

We would also encourage you to circulate details of the preview service and the survey as widely as possible.

Both the survey and the preview will only be available until Monday 13th May, but development work will still be continuing and so we will have more posts to keep you up to date with progress.

Please take a few minutes to let us know what you think!

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk or the SUNCAT blog at http://suncatblog.blogspot.com

SUNCAT updated

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SUNCAT has been updated. Updates from the following libraries were
loaded into the catalogue in the last week. The dates displayed
indicate when the files were received by SUNCAT.

  • CONSER (20 Apr 13) 
  • Cranfield University (20 Apr 13)
  • Edinburgh University (21 March 13)
  • Glasgow University (04 Apr 13)
  • Imperial College, London (01 Mar 13)
  • Manchester Metropolitan University (09 Apr 13)
  • Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (16 Apr 13)
  • Royal College of Music (11 Apr 13)
  • Trinity College Dublin (26 Mar 13)
  • University College London (09 Apr 13) 

To check on the currency of other libraries on SUNCAT please check the updates page for further details.

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk or the SUNCAT blog at http://suncatblog.blogspot.com

SUNCAT at UKSG 2013

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The SUNCAT team were very happy to attend this year’s excellent UKSG Annual Conference in Bournemouth. We hope that those of you who attended were able to visit the SUNCAT stand and try out our new interface!

Team members Paula Cuccurullo and Celia Jenkins have summarised some of the plenaries and breakouts they attended for the official UKSG conference blog.

You can still take a look at the new-look SUNCAT. Let us have your feedback via edina@ed.ac.uk. The new service is still in development so please continue to use the current SUNCAT as your primary service.

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk or the SUNCAT blog at http://suncatblog.blogspot.com

SUNCAT updated

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SUNCAT has been updated. Updates from the following libraries were
loaded into the catalogue in the last week. The dates displayed
indicate when the files were received by SUNCAT.

  • British Library (22 Mar 13)
  • Exeter University (05 Apr 13)
  • ISSN (12 Apr 13)
  • Kingston University (14 Mar 13) 
  • Manchester University (21 Mar 13)
  • Nottingham University (03 Apr 13)
  • Society of Antiquaries of London (11 Apr 13)
  • Southampton University (14 Apr 13)
  • Warwick University (02 Apr 13)

To check on the currency of other libraries on SUNCAT please check the updates page for further details.

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk or the SUNCAT blog at http://suncatblog.blogspot.com

Weird and wonderful poetry titles – second instalment

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April is National Poetry Month. To mark this occasion we have searched SUNCAT for weird and wonderful poetry titles. Hope you enjoyed the first instalment. Here is this second!

  • My favorite bullet.
  • The paper nautilus.
  • PigeonBike.
  • Ploplop.
  • The poetry of surrender : by SubVerse writers.       
  • Poor old tired horse.
  • The Records of love: or, Weekly amusements for the fair sex.
  • Runnin’ on empty.
  • School : from two sides of the desk.
  • Slow dancer.
  • Snow monkey.
  • Spectacular diseases.
  • Unmuzzled ox.
  • Veer off.
  • A wigman to wind the sun up.
  • Brown sweater free poems.
  • The female preceptor : containing essays, chiefly on the
    duties of the female sex; with a variety of useful and polite literature,
    poems, &c. :embellished with several beautiful engravings / conducted by a
    lady.
  • The good child’s reward: : containing a series of poems and
    essays, on natural, moral, and religious subjects. To which is prefixed, An
    affectionate address on the duties and obligations they owe to God and their
    parents. / By Henry Sharpe Horsley. Illustrated by upwards of one hundred
    engravings.
  • Kamikaze sheep : an anthology of poems and short stories.
  • Litter : more poems from The Pig Press.
  • Out from beneath the boot : poems.
  • Brittle star.
  • Crazy horse.
  • Deliberately thirsty.
  • Fine madness.
  • Hot gun!
  • A love gift for …
  • Moodswing. (“A pocket broadsheet from the ’Grim’ North
    delivering the goods whatever the emotional weather.”)

For more poetry titles and  other weird and wonderful serials take a look in SUNCAT.

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk or the SUNCAT blog at http://suncatblog.blogspot.com

SUNCAT updated

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SUNCAT has been updated. Updates from the following libraries were
loaded into the catalogue in the last week. The dates displayed
indicate when the files were received by SUNCAT.

  • Cardiff University (28 Mar 13)
  • Directory of Open Access Journals (10 Apr 13)
  • Dundee University (01 Apr 13)
  • Liverpool University (04 Apr 13)
  • London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (05 Apr 13)
  • National Library of Scotland (02 Apr 13)
  • Oxford University (07 Mar 13)
  • Queen Mary, University of London (15 Mar 13)
  • Robert Gordon University (01 Apr 13)
  • Royal College of Nursing (04 Apr 13)
  • Royal Society of Medicine (08 Apr 13)
  • Southampton University (07 Apr 13)
  • Stirling University (28 Feb 13)
  • Sussex University (03 Apr 13)
  • Swansea University (15 Mar 13)
  • York University (04 Apr 13)

To check on the currency of other libraries on SUNCAT please check the updates page for further details.

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk or the SUNCAT blog at http://suncatblog.blogspot.com

Preview the New Look SUNCAT

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Good morning from UKSG 2013! As promised last month the new look SUNCAT is now available for you to preview at http://test.suncat.ac.uk

The current service will continue as the primary service for the moment, but we would encourage you to take a look, experiment and let us have your feedback on the new service as soon as you get a chance.

The new service is still in development, so there are still issues to be resolved with keeping it up-to-date, searching and relevancy ranking, but to give you a flavour, the new service:

• Integrates information from the website and the actual service more closely, with the search box, a map of our Contributing Libraries and a feed of our latest news all on the homepage

• Enables searching limited to a specific library or selection of libraries: you will only see the serials’ holdings of libraries you have specified in your search

• Enables searching limited to a specific location or selection of locations, all the way from Inverness to Exeter: again you will only see the serials’ holdings in locations you have specified in your search.

• Plus you can combine library and location limits to suit your individual search requirements

• Enables searching limited to electronic or print serials only: helpful if you only want to see what might be immediately available online or conversely if want to see only material likely to be available via Inter-Library Loan.

• Enables filtering of search results by library, location, subject, organisation, publisher, date etc.

• Enables more sophisticated searching via the Advanced Search option

• Allows you to choose how many records you want to display on your search results screen

• Provides an alphabetical list of all the libraries holding a particular serial title

• Allows you to quickly see if holdings are print or electronic

• Opens up further information about each library, including directions, contact details, British Library code and when it was last updated in SUNCAT

If you are attending UKSG, please come along to the EDINA stand 26 and we will be happy to demo the service for you and answer your questions in person. However, you can also let us know what you think or if you have any questions or suggestions via the EDINA helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk

We hope you like what you see!

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk or the SUNCAT blog at http://suncatblog.blogspot.com

SUNCAT updated

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SUNCAT has been updated. Updates from the following libraries were
loaded into the catalogue in the last week. The dates displayed
indicate when the files were received by SUNCAT.

  • Birmingham University (22 Mar 13)
  • CONSER (03 Apr 13)
  • Durham University (22 Mar 13)
  • Hull University (27 Feb 13)
  • Kent University (01 Apr 13)
  • Leicester University (26 Mar 13)
  • Liverpool University (28 Mar 13)
  • Natural History Museum (25 Mar 13)
  • Newcastle University (28 Mar 13)
  • Southampton University (31 Mar 13)
  • Tate Library (Tate Britain) (25 Mar 13)
  • University of the West of England (UWE) (23 Mar 13)
  • Wellcome Library (27 Mar 13)

To check on the currency of other libraries on SUNCAT please check the updates page for further details.

SUNCAT is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. Visit the service at http://www.suncat.ac.uk or the SUNCAT blog at http://suncatblog.blogspot.com