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News & Events

A varied programme of events is available to NWLIP partner organisations:

NWLIP Inter Library Loan Meeting

Manchester

Regular inter library loan meetings provide the opportunity for NWLIP partners to network with our speakers and with colleagues and practitioners from other partner organisations in the public and academic sectors of the North West. Inter Library Loan meetings are open to all NWLIP partner organisations; the meeting agenda is set by NWLIP partners.

We welcome your ideas for speakers and suggestions for meeting topics and agenda items; please send details to NWLIP@lancashire.gov.uk 

Date and venue to be confirmed, scheduled for Spring 2012.  Free to NWLIP organisations. 

 

NWLIP UnityUK Subscriber User Group

UnityUK User Group meetings are open to NWLIP partner organisations who subscribe to UnityUK, they provide the opportunity for existing members of the UnityUK community to raise queries, to discuss the system, and to suggest potential enhancements or workflow improvements, and are a vital tool in the development of the product. The meeting agenda is set by NWLIP partner organisations. 

The frequency of User Group meetings will remain under review, they are currently timed prior to or shortly after system upgrades but if there is sufficient demand or NWLIP partners feel there is sufficient business to be discussed it may be possible to arrange additional meetings.  Please contact the NWLIP Team at NWLIP@lancashire.gov.uk for more details.

Free to NWLIP organisations.  Date and venue to be confirmed. 

 

National Union Catalogue Update

Friday 15th April 2011.

OCLC has today announced that its project to develop a Web-based, national public library catalogue has now been made available to a selection of pilot institutions. Over the next two months a small group of libraries will have the opportunity to review the catalogue, and feedback on things such as data quality and overall user experience.

For further details see the press release or if you’d like to be involved in the testing of the catalogue please contact elisabeth.robinson@oclc.org

OCLC and The Combined Regions announce plans to launch Web-based public library national union catalogue in UK

Thursday 06th January 2011.

New shared Web catalogue to boost visibility and usage of public library resources

BIRMINGHAM, UK, 06 January 2011: OCLC and The Combined Regions (TCR) have announced plans to launch the first freely accessible national public library union catalogue in Britain. Containing the bibliographic data from 80% of UK public libraries, the service will make it possible for Web users to simultaneously search 9 million bibliographic records and 50 million holdings.
 
Leveraging information already indexed in WorldCat, the largest online resource for finding library materials, this customised union catalogue will provide a view of holdings contributed by the 149 local authorities with a current full package subscription to UnityUK, the only nationwide network for resource sharing in the UK.
 
The initiative will make bibliographic data more discoverable on the open Web. Indexing of WorldCat data through search engines such as Google and Yahoo! will vastly improve awareness of public library resources and drive significantly increased traffic back to local libraries.
 
Requiring no other expenditure than a current full package UnityUK subscription, the service increases visibility for public library holdings - positioning them as primary sources of information alongside other Web resources.
 
A recent agreement drafted by OCLC with input from The Combined Regions securing the provision of UnityUK and making important provisions for its future as a national platform for resource discovery and inter-lending paved the way for the development of this new union catalogue. Both organisations share an ambition to achieve wider access to public libraries. This agreement is a vital step towards that goal.
 
Commenting on the plans Rob Froud, Chair, The Combined Regions said: [We have long held the ambition to create a national union catalogue and we are delighted that we are going to achieve this in partnership with OCLC. It is one of the biggest developments for public libraries since the Peoples Network: it is the Big Idea that public libraries need to demonstrate their combined value, their relevance and accessibility at a time when resource sharing is more important than ever.]
 
These are sentiments echoed by Robin Murray, Vice President, Global Product Management OCLC: [This is a crucial time for UK public libraries. The focus on shared services and collaboration to raise the profile of UK public libraries in the midst of declining budgets has never been more important. The need to employ technology in new ways to increase visibility and usage is key.]
 
Robin continues: [OCLC is acutely aware of the challenges facing libraries today and we are devoted to maximising the value our customers receive from existing investments. Our strategy has always been to leverage the benefits and efficiencies of scale brought about through cooperation and the aggregation of library data – this initiative is the latest manifestation of this approach – a way to provide a simple, scalable solution to a long-standing challenge faced by the public libraries in the UK.]
 
The first phase of this project is to produce an initial proof of concept which will be available for review by those UnityUK libraries with a full package subscription in March 2011.
 
Alternatively, email uk@oclc.org.

NWLIP Sponsored Places at FIL Events

You could attend future Forum For Interlending and Information Delivery (FIL) events for free! 

NWLIP periodically offer sponsored places at FIL events, including their National Conference and British Library events at BLDSC Boston Spa in Yorkshire and to the St. Pancras site in London.  At the recent FIL St. Pancras event NWLIP sponsorship covered the £80 fee and the cost of standard return rail travel. This was a great opportunity to attend a FIL Study Day and a chance to see behind the scenes of the British Library St. Pancras building. 

NWLIP sponsored places are open to all staff working in interlending or document delivery in NWLIP organisations, and successful delegates are usually drawn at random from all entries.  

Look out for similar opportunities in the future, and remember that to be in with a chance, you need to apply!  Usually, all we ask from you is an email detailing the reasons why you would like to attend the event.

 
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