County Councils, Metropolitan Boroughs and Unitary authorities are all represented among the UnityUK membership list and library authorities large and small have all signed up for the new TCR service. The geographic spread of UnityUK users is impressive and the service is already being used by libraries across England, Scotland and Wales.
As part of the ongoing development of the service, from mid July 2006 UnityUK subscribers will be able to access the former UnityWeb catalogue, complete with 40 million holdings, and use the information for searching and placing requests.
UnityUK will, for the first time, deliver a national network for resource sharing for the UK as it brings together the union catalogues of The Combined Regions and LinkUK and one integrated service is expected in mid 2007. The new service uses the latest resource sharing technology from world leaders OCLC PICA who also host and manage the new service.
The 78 LinkUK libraries also use OCLC PICA software to share resources and the integration project between UnityUK and the LinkUK libraries is due to start during the summer 2006. Early adopters among the LinkUK libraries will use both services as part the integration project to ensure that the UnityUK service is developed in line with the LinkUK libraries requirements.
More than 175 library authorities across the UK use OCLC PICA software to share resources and manage requesting.
UnityUK will be on show at the Forum for Interlending, taking place at the University of Southampton from 10th to 12th July 2006. (http://www.cilip.org.uk/groups/fil/index.html).
About UnityUK
UnityUK is the upgraded web-based resource sharing and interlibrary loan service provided by The Combined Regions (TCR). UnityUK, launched in May 2006, delivers leading edge functionality for union catalogue, cross database searching, holdings and item location, interlibrary loan and resource sharing services. UnityUK uses the latest international resource sharing standards and integrates with all major library management systems in use in the UK today. UnityUK also links together the union catalogues of the TCR member libraries and LinkUK library resources, to provide the first national resource sharing service for the UK.
www.unity-uk.com
more information...
About The Combined Regions (TCR)
The Combined Regions (TCR) is the organisation behind the Unity resource sharing service. For more than 10 years, TCR has provided interlending services to its 140 member library organisations across the South West, North East, East Midlands, North East and Scotland. Under the Unity name, TCR’s resource sharing services began with a CD union catalogue, and in 2001 moved to become web-based. In February 2006, The Combined Regions announced the launch of a new and upgraded Unity service to be provided by OCLC PICA.
www.combinedregions.com
