SUNCAT – feedback and service developments
The winter of 2012/13 has been a busy one for the SUNCAT team, analysing recent survey returns while implementing service developments.
Following on from the User Satisfaction Surveys we have now published an initial summary of responses. We received some very useful feedback, which has already begun to inform the planned SUNCAT development. The context is timely, with the forthcoming preview release of a new interface in Spring 2013. Ahead of that release, we have published an overview of the technical architecture, and will continue to provide updates over the coming months as the redevelopment unfolds, including the release of an accompanying mobile app.
We are highlighting the new or improved features in the redeveloped SUNCAT on the blog in the weeks up to the preview release.
In terms of active developments, we have also published a summary of the availability of SUNCAT linked data. This arises from a Jisc-funded investigation into extending access to metadata contributed by a set of SUNCAT libraries, with the aim of promoting its discovery and reuse.
In the meantime, we were pleased, earlier this month, to welcome the 90th contributing library – City University London, whose 60,500 serials records are included in the catalogue. We have also been in communication recently with all contributing libraries concerning the migration to RDA (Resource Description Access), the new cataloguing rules that are due to replace AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition). Feedback will greatly help with the integration of RDA into SUNCAT, for example, in adding new MARC21 codes for display and developing new indexing routines.
Contact us at: edina@ed.ac.uk
EDINA, Causewayside House
160 Causewayside, Edinburgh
United Kingdom EH9 1PR
EDINA is the Jisc-designated national data centre at the University of Edinburgh.
