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With UnityUK, you can:
Contribute your data to the union catalogue
Contributing to UnityUK is free, so you do not have to subscribe to make your holdings available through the service. More than 300 UK libraries are currently contributing to the service.
You can contribute your library's data in three ways:
- Provide a full bibliographic record upload with added library holdings
- Supply a library holding notification
- Enable access to your catalogue via Z39.50
Make your holdings more accessible
OCLC and The Combined Regions (TCR) have been working together to load the UnityUK union catalogue into the WorldCat® database. As a result, your library's holdings can be made available on the open web, and accessible through major search engines, as well as Worldcat.org. This allows the public to search and view holdings of UnityUK libraries and beyond—for free, from anywhere.
The Worldcat.org interface offers the public features they have come to expect including, lists, reviews and other evaluative content. With approximately 100,000 visits a month to Worldcat.org coming from the UK, who start their quest for materials at search engines and, nearly 15% of those, resulting in a visit to the library's OPAC; the addition of up-to-date UnityUK holdings will provide users with a significantly enhanced experience.
Service Packs
There are two UnityUK Service Packs available: Full Service and Search Only. The Search Only option has been designed for libraries who use their library management system to place and manage requests.
| Feature | Full Service |
Search Only |
| Login(s) with unique username(s) and password(s) | X | X |
| Exit and login without any time delay | X | X |
| Simple and advanced searching of multiple sources including the UnityUK data set and COPAC |
X | X |
| Display of holdings with your region at the top | X | X |
| Ability to check OPACs for real-time availability information | X | X |
| Ability to add local request number to a request |
X | |
| Manual or automated rota creation |
X | |
| Ability to have items delivered direct to your branch | X | |
| Integration with BLDSC, including ADD address, SED and automatic update of requests |
X | |
| Integrated tracking and management of borrower and lender requests through one single web-based interface | X |
Simplifying your billing with Integrated Fee Management (IFM)
In addition to the features listed above, IFM is now available to Full Service subscribers of UnityUK. The IFM service enables you to reconcile resource sharing charges and receipts directly through a monthly OCLC invoice. You'll eliminate the need to process a British Library claim form. This will save borrowing and lending libraries considerable time as service managers will no longer have to spend time collating their British Library claim report or checking their invoices.
UnityUK is a resource sharing and interlibrary loan service, which delivers union catalog management, cross database searching, holdings and item location and an integrated interlibrary loan workflow.
Service availability
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Available in Ireland and the UK
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