LinkUK data successfully migrated to UnityUK creating a single national union catalogue

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 23 June 2008  – OCLC is pleased to announce that the data and holdings of the LinkUK union catalogue have been successfully migrated into the UnityUK union catalogue. This full integration sees the realisation of a UK national union catalogue that provides 170 public libraries access to over 9,300,000 titles and 50,500,000 holdings.

UnityUK delivers leading edge functionality for union catalogue management, cross database searching, holdings and item location, integrated interlibrary loans and resource sharing. It enables complete searching and request management from one interface and to date has fulfilled over 112,000 requests from member libraries.

Katie Birch, Portfolio Manager, OCLC commented "We are delighted to have reached this point and will continue to develop the service to suit the needs of its users."

Rob Froud, TCR Chair, commented "This is a landmark development in Interlibrary loan services in the UK. The Combined Regions is delighted to be working with OCLC and the former LinkUK library community to establish this coherent, strategic and national approach to service delivery."

The UnityUK user community continues to grow with Middlesborough, Redcar and Cleveland and South Tyneside Public Libraries recently subscribing to the service. 

For more information on UnityUK visit www.oclc.org or email UK@oclc.org.

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About OCLC

Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC is a nonprofit library service and research organisation that has provided computer-based cataloguing, reference, resource sharing, eContent, preservation, library management and Web services to 60,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories.  OCLC and its member libraries worldwide have created and maintain WorldCat, the world’s richest online resource for finding library materials.  For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

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.

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.

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