Fred Guy describes the part social media has played in the development of Suncat, the UK serials union cataloge. Presented at the 6th annual Metadata & Web 2.0 seminar organised by the Cataloguing and Indexing Group in Scotland, held at the National Library of Scotland, 21 June 2013

1. Socialising in the
(245$a)
Fred Guy
SUNCAT Service Manager
EDINA
Metadata & Web 2.0 Seminar
CIGS 21st June 2013

2. 2Metadata & Web 2.0
Seminar
CIGS 21st June 2013
http://www.flickr.com/photos/running_like_an_antelope/2306194741/sizes/l/in/photolist-4vMRmi-7jsVtZ-7jwyFS-ehaQra-etShnt-5sTXtT-rLTMk-9PH9Dn-
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Cat in the sun

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Book club in the sun?

4. Social Media Quotes
“How can you squander even one more day
not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of
our generation? How dare you settle for less
when the world has made it so easy for you to
be remarkable?” – Seth Godin, Best Selling
Author
"If you want to build a presence in the social
media platform, then you need to be present."
- @unmarketing
"The Internet has turned what used to be a
controlled, one-way message into a real-time
dialogue with millions." - @daniellesacks
"On Twitter we get excited if someone follows
us. In real life we get really scared and run
away." ~Unknown via @mozusa
“Social Media is about sociology and
psychology more than technology.” – Brain
Solis
http://retailindustry.about.com/od/retailleaderquotes/a/Funny_inspiring_quotable_quotations_about_twitter_social_media_business.htm

5. SUNCAT and Social
Media
(245$b)
Metadata and Web 2.0 Seminar
CIGS 21st June 2013
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6. SUNCAT is ………….
• A union catalogue (aggregation of metadata) of
serials held in 90 UK (and Ireland) libraries
including HE libraries, national libraries,
specialist libraries (museums, galleries, learned
societies, research institutes, botanic gardens)
• A free to web service hosted by EDINA, based
at the University of Edinburgh
• A source of quality MARC21 records for
downloading by staff in Contributing Libraries
• Funded by Jisc (Project February 2003 – July 2005; Pilot
service August 2005 – July 2006; Service August 2006 - )

10. •Jisc-designated centre of expertise and centre for online services
•Part of "EDINA and Data Library" division of Information Services at the University of
Edinburgh
•Develops and delivers shared services and infrastructure to support research and education
in the UK
•Operating since 1995/96 as one of a number of organisations in the ‘Jisc Family’

12. 90 Contributing
Libraries
Serials Union CATalogue
• Resource discovery
• Serials’ holdings
locations
• Collection
management
• Tables of Contents
• Access to full text
• Downloading of
MARC21 records (for
CLs)
SUNCAT
13
70
1
1
5

13. “In the case of journal collections, about half of
all respondents–slightly more in the arts and
humanities than in other fields–strongly agreed
that they “often would like to use journal articles
that are not in [their] library’s print or digital
collections.”
(P.38)
Ithaka S+R, Jisc, RLUK
UK Survey of Academics 2012
Note. 3498 respondents; a response rate of
7.9%

14. “Blogs, microblogs and other social media tools
offer greater flexibility in terms of content, tone
and timeliness compared with more formal
websites and newsletters. They are a less
formal and more discursive way to
communicate between project or service teams
and users or stakeholders”.
Social Media Guidelines
Author: Nicola Osborne, EDINA Social Media Officer
Version: 1.1
Published: 19 October 2012
PDF version: http://edina.ac.uk/about/social_media/social_media_guidelines.pdf (327 Kb)
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Guidelines on Social Media

16. 16Metadata & Web 2.0
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CIGS 21st June 2013
The SUNCAT Community

17. Objectives
• Promote the service
• Show how it is evolving
• Impart information about new developments,
services etc.
• Engage with the users (actual and potential)

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The Team!

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The most viewed
blog post

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22. Marking special days

29. SUNCAT Blog postings
January 2008 – May 2013
Total per
year
Average
per month
Average
per week
2013 41 8.2 1.9
2012 92 7.7 1.8
2011 72 6.0 1.4
2010 61 5.1 1.2
2009 45 3.8 0.9
2008 63 5.3 1.2

33. Key subjects of Blog posts
Metadata & Web 2.0 Seminar
CIGS 21st JUNE 2013
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Updates (235)
New libraries
(24)
Interface
developments
(11)
Service
developments
(11)
Special
days (16)
Olympics
(16)
Weird &
wonderful
(11)
Demonstrating the
dynamic nature of the
service
Highlighting
titles

34. SUNCAT Redevelopment:
some posts
• Redevelopment of the SUNCAT Platform
• Focus on post search filters
• Feedback on the new look SUNCAT
• Focus on limiting your search
• Technical architecture overview

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SUNCAT Redevelopment : new home page

36. Search results showing filters

37. Summary
• Have been quite active in Blogging
• Have not had much feedback in the way of
comments although Twitter (especially the
@VoicesLibrary) did elicit some comment
• Doesn’t really take a lot of time especially as
the responsibility for writing posts is shared
• We have been able to arrange for our technical
colleagues to contribute posts.
• Does allow for immediate communication ie. no
need to wait for a complete issue of a
newsletter to be compiled and published
• Helps with the articulation of views, opinions
etc. (Not unique to Social Media)

38. Future Plans for Blog postings
• Discuss professional matters such as RDA and
serials (based on survey work carried out for
article to be published in Alexandria: journal of
national and international library
information issues)
• Highlight specific collections in
Contributing Libraries
• Highlight the work of individual team members

39. Websites & Sources of
information
• Social Media Quotations
http://retailindustry.about.com/od/retailleaderquotes/a/Funny_insp
iring_quotable_quotations_about_twitter_social_media_business.ht
m
• SUNCAT http://www.suncat.ac.uk/
• EDINA http://edina.ac.uk
• EDINA and Social Media
http://edina.ac.uk/news/news_socialmedia.html
• EDINA and Social Media Guidelines
http://edina.ac.uk/about/social_media/social_media_guidelines.ht
ml
• Itatha S+R, Jisc, RLUK UK survey of Academics 2012 (May 2013)
http://repository.jisc.ac.uk/5209/1/UK_Survey_of_Academics_2012
_FINAL.pdf
• SUNCAT Blog http://www.suncatblog.blogspot.co.uk/ (old)
http://suncat.blogs.edina.ac.uk/ (new)
• SUNCAT Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/SUNCATUnionCatalogue
• SUNCAT Twitter https://twitter.com/suncatteam
Metadata & Web 2.0 Seminar
CIGS 21st June 2013

40. Contact information
• EDINA
Causewayside House,
160 Causewayside,
Edinburgh,
Scotland,
United Kingdom
EH9 1PR
• Email: edina@ed.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)131 650 3302
Fax: +44 (0)131 650 3308
• f.guy@ed.ac.uk
Metadata & Web 2.0 Seminar
CIGS 21st June 2013