Towards a "Universal" On-Line Union Catalogue of Periodicals - some early progress.

Denis Vincent J. Reidy
The British Library - 96 Euston Road
London NW1B 2DB (United Kingdom)
denis.reidy@bl.uk

There can be little doubt that hard copy catalogues (that is to say catalogues produced in non electronic format) of collections which are being constantly added to in a library or institution, would nowadays appear to be somewhat anachronistic. A printed catalogue of a "static" or "closed" collection which will not be expanded or added to in the future, does have a function, however, the collections of most libraries and institutions are far from static and are being expanded, developed and added to constantly. Nowhere is this more true than in the field of periodicals. New periodicals are constantly being published and are being added to the collections of the vast majority of the larger libraries and academic institutions world-wide. Moreover some institutions also have to reduce some of their subscriptions to periodicals for a variety of reasons.

It has long been a cherished dream of mine that a definitive Online Union Catalogue of all periodicals published throughout the world containing details of title, publisher, place of publication, frequency of publication, ISSN, etc. plus shelf mark and holdings information of all major libraries and academic institutions world wide should be created. I fully realise that this is a very ambitious project which will necessitate a considerable amount of resources.

Two years ago I saw a "window of opportunity" for embarking on such a project within my own area of specialism - Italian studies. I had been aware for a considerable period of time that academics, librarians and indeed anyone with an interest in Italian Studies in the widest sense or, to be more accurate, in Italian civilisation e.g. the Italian Language, its literature, art, architecture, history, politics, economics, etc., etc. would greatly benefit from an Online catalogue of all periodicals of interest to Italianists published world wide and in all the major languages.

As early as 1987 Brian Cainen, a former academic in the Department of Italian at the University of Wales, at Swansea, had compiled and edited a hard copy, cyclostyled "Catalogue of periodicals of interest to Italianists held in Universities in the British Isles". This was produced on a word processor, was printed on paper, and was bound in a light card binding which was held together by a plastic spiral binder . This paper catalogue ran to 64 pages and listed 611 periodicals of interest to Italianists in all major languages. It had the added benefit of listing the holdings of these periodicals in all the universities in the British Isles.

As we all know the periodical holdings of all large libraries change considerably over the years and I had thought for some time that it would be very useful to update the above catalogue and to make it available electronically Online. I like to believe that being a fairly practical person and realising that in order to bring the project to fruition, considerable resources would be needed. I couldn't even countenance starting, let alone completing, the project on my own. Help came at hand from the British Library in 1999 when it announced bids for financial assistance in cataloguing projects as part of its Co-operation and Partnership programme.

I approached the Committee of the Society for Italian Studies, the ultimate authority for Italian Studies in the British Isles, to ask their assistance in preparing a bid and in finding an external partner with whom the bid could be made. It was decided to choose the Department of Italian and The Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds ( in Yorkshire, UK ) and a bid was prepared and submitted. I am delighted to report that the bid was successful and the British Library awarded the sum of £ 32,000 (approximately one hundred million Italian lire) to the University of Leeds for the project which is to last for a two-year period.

The Project is headed by Professor Brian Richardson of the Department of Italian, Leeds University, Leeds, LS2 9JT. Dr. Guyda Armstrong, a post doctoral research fellow, has been engaged from September 2000 to compile the catalogue and has made considerable progress. The catalogue of periodical holdings of interest to Italianists held in the British Isles (regardless of language of publication) is estimated to contain approximately 2,000 periodicals and newspapers at present and is growing rapidly on a daily basis. The software and portals are up and running and should be available on the British Library web site by September of this year on www.bl.uk. This phase of the project is due to be completed by the end of 2002.

Some progress has been made but there is still a long way to go in order to achieve our goal and to realise that dream of a Universal Online Union Catalogue. However there are some good omens. Considerable interest has been generated in the Italian periodicals On line Catalogue jointly produced by the British Library and The University of Leeds, so much so, that it is being used as a model for other languages and subject areas not only in the Humanities and Social Sciences but the potential is there for other disciplines, especially the Pure and the Applied Sciences. Approaches have also been made to the National Libraries of Rome and Florence to see whether bibliographical records of periodical holdings from these two important and great national institutions could be added to expand the database. I am pleased to report that the Chief Executives of both these Institutions are happy to include the holdings of their Libraries in an extended database. There has also been great interest in the project from several other countries on both sides of the Atlantic. 

The most positive news about the project is the decision by the authorities at the University of Leeds who are so impressed with the project and its potential, that they have been prepared to draw up a new bid to extend the project for a further three years (from 2002 to 2005). To this end a new detailed bid for funding from the British Government has been submitted by Leeds University for the sum of £300,000 ( approximately 1,000,000,000 Italian Lire "un miliardo") in order to extend the remit of the project and so that the project team can be expanded. The closing date for the receipt of bids was 31 May 2001 and at present these are being evaluated by assessors. The outcome of the bid should be known over the coming months. Anyone requiring further information about the project, the bid or those wishing to be involved in future co-operation should contact me at my E-Mail address:- denis.reidy@bl.uk