Clumping in the UK: towards virtual union catalogues

Abstract

Following the initial success of the eLib Programme for Higher Education libraries in the UK, the most recent phase of funding has been directed at hybrid library and clump projects. A clump is an aggregation of catalogues which may be physical ‐ a traditional union catalogue ‐ or virtual, being created at the time of searching. The most common protocol in use in clumps is Z39.50 which offers opportunities for creating gateways to a range of catalogues, thus allowing simultaneous parallel searching. Four clump projects have been approved by eLib and started work in January 1998: CAIRNS ‐ Co‐operative Academic Information Retrieval Network for Scotland; M25 Link: Access to London Libraries; Music Libraries Online (a geographically split subject clump); RIDING: Z39.50 Gateway to Yorkshire Libraries.

Z39.50 broadcast searching and Z‐server response times

“…Arising from the MODELS (Moving to Distributed Environments for Library Services) initiative, the JISCfunded electronic libraries programme (eLib), funded the creation of four virtual union catalogue services (or Clumps) in 1998 to conduct further research and develop Z39.50 for the purposes of expansive information retrieval in the UK (Stubley, 1998). A 'Clump' was defined as an aggregation of catalogues, including physical union catalogues; this definition has subsequently been refined to refer to those aggregations that are inherently distributed only, and is now more commonly used to specifically describe aggregations based on Z39.50 (Dunsire & Macgregor, 2003).…”

The electronic library: a review

“…OCLC's CORC project (Senecal, 2000;CORC, 2000) has explored the applicability of cataloguing or meta-data standards such as Dublin core to electronic resources, thus creating an important tool for the establishment of the electronic library. And once the promise of Z39.50 search facilities is delivered by CLUMPS projects (Stubley, 1997) such as CAIRNS (CAIRNS, 2000), enabling diverse networked opac services to be searched in a single pass, the electronic fulfilment of universal bibliographic control will have taken a major step forward.…”

From cards to clumps: a look at developments in the world of union catalogues

“…The main modules in the system would be available either together or separately, to suit the particular needs of purchasing institutions, and the project shows how union catalogue searching can be integrated into a total library management package. The ED-DIS project has now come to an end but the work of this JISC (Joint Information Services Committee)-funded project which is part of the eLib (electronic libraries) phase 1 programme (http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/ elib/), is being extended by phase 3 projects looking at extending the concept of the hybrid library and, in particular, at``large scale resource discovery'' projects or clumps (Stubley, 1998).…”