Page contents:
Pre-2007 News archive
Current News is available on the Copac News Blog. This also includes an archive of News from March 2007 onwards.
2007 news archive
2007 January to March
Copac inaccessible 8am 27th March
On Tuesday 27th March, starting at 8am, local network maintenance
at the University of Manchester means Copac will be inaccessible for a
short period. Work is expected to take less than 15 minutes, but the
service is 'at risk' until 09:00. With apologies for any inconvenience
this may cause.
(March 20th 2007)
Hand Press Book database records of the Cathedral Libraries Catalogue to be added to Copac
The Consortium of Research Libraries (CURL), the Consortium of
European Research Libraries (CERL) and the Cathedral Libraries and
Archives Association (CLAA) have agreed to add the Hand Press Book
database records of the Cathedral Libraries Catalogue to Copac. The
Cathedral Libraries Catalogue (published by the Bibliographical
Society between 1984 and 1998) contains records of books printed
before 1701 held in the libraries of 37 Anglican Cathedrals of England
and Wales. It includes books printed in the British Isles, British
America, and English books printed elsewhere, as well as books printed
on the Continent of Europe. The catalogue is expected to be added to
Copac, along with the Challenge Fund data, during
the next year. For full details see the Cathedral
Libraries Catalogue Press release on the CURL web site.
(February 28th 2007)
Challenge fund initiative: adding more data to the Copac catalogue
The Consortium of Research Libraries (CURL), the Research Information
Network (RIN) and the British Library have announced significant
future additions to Copac as a result of the Copac Challenge Fund, a
jointly funded initiative to expose more of the wealth of UK library
holdings for the benefit of researchers of all types in the UK and
beyond. For full details see the Challenge fund
press release on the CURL web site.
(February 22nd 2007)
Copac available again
During the storms in Thurday 18th January there was a local power failure resulting in the loss of many University of Manchester computer systems, including Copac. The systems team have been working on this and Copac became available again on the morning of Sunday 21st. Apologies for any problems this loss of service has caused you.
(January 22nd 2007)
2007 March onwards
From March we moved to using the Copac Blog for news.
Copac at risk, July 3rd 7.30-8.00am
A local network upgrade is taking place at the University of
Manchester on Tuesday 3rd July. The Copac service is expected to be
unavailable for 10 minutes from c.7.30am but should be considered at
risk until 8.00am. With apologies for any inconvenience caused.
(19th June 2007)
Aberdeen and St Andrews live location details available
Live location information is now available for Aberdeen and St
Andrews Special Collections. This means you can check the Copac Local Holdings display to see
if items held by these libraries are currently on-loan, reference only
etc. The Local Holdings display also includes details such as the name of the branch
library that holds a document, the shelf location, journal volumes
available, and any local notes.
(22nd May 2007))
Birmingham catalogue load complete
We have completed the load of the University of Birmingham
Library catalogue and this is now available on Copac. Unfortunately, there is
currently no live document availability information, but this is under
investigation by Birmingham.
(20th August 2007)
Birmingham catalogue being loaded
We have received the catalogue of the University of Birmingham
Library and this is currently being loaded. Over half the
the Birmingham records are now included on Copac so you will be starting to see
Birmingham records in your searches. We are expecting the remainder of
the catalogue to be available next Monday (20th August).
(13th August 2007)
Copac overnight shutdown today - Wednesday 19th September
There is a suspected hardware problem on the system on which Copac
runs. To investigate this it is necessary to take Copac out of use for
a few hours. Consequently Copac will become at risk after 6pm and will
be unavailable from 7pm. All being well Copac should be available
again Thursday morning (20th September). With apologies for any
inconvenience this may cause you.
(19th September 2007)
Copac scheduled downtime 9am Tuesday 30th October
Hardware maintenance is scheduled for the machine on which Copac
runs, this will take place from 9am on Tuesday 30th October. Copac
will be unavailable whilst the maintenance takes place, as will the
Copac+ESTC trial interface. We are anticipating that the service will
be down for approximately 1 hour - with apologies for any inconvenience this
may cause you.
(16th October 2007)
Copac overnight shutdown - Wednesday 3rd October
Please be aware that Copac will be unavailable from 7pm on Wednesday
evening and will be at risk from 6pm. Normal service should resume on
Thursday morning. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
A system shutdown is required to fully resolve recent problems with
the file system. A hardware fault was fixed over the weekend and
a shutdown is needed to clean up the after effects.
(1st October 2007)
2006 news archive
2006 October to December
Copac available over Christmas but with no Helpdesk
Copac will be available as usual over the Christmas holiday, but there will be
no Helpdesk support from 22nd December to the 1st January inclusive. Any
enquiries to the Copac Helpdesk will be responded to as soon as
possible when we're back in work on the 2nd January.
(December
20th 2006)
Redesigned Copac Web Pages available for comment
As part of the re-development of the Copac service we are creating a new look for the Copac web pages as well as revising the content. A few trial web pages are now available for comment. You can access these by selecting the 'Trial web pages' link below the 'Enter Copac' button on the Copac Home Page (http://copac.ac.uk/) [Update March 2007: Trial pages no longer available].
Because this is just a sample of a few pages there are many inactive links - these are generally indicated with a [x]. Of the information pages the 'Libraries' option is the only one with content. As the pages are still under development they are subject to change without notice.
We would very much appreciate any comments you may have on these trial web
pages. If you have any display problems please let us know what
browser you are using, with the version number if possible. Contact
the Copac helpdesk with feedback (copac@mimas.ac.uk).
(8th December 2006)
Trial of new interface on Copac v3
We have now added a new interface to the new Copac database that we are
developing. You can try this by selecting the link to Copac v3 below
the Enter Copac button on the Home Page. Please get in touch and let
us know what you think and whether you have any problems with the
interface. If you do have difficulties could you send us details of
the problem plus the name of the Web browser you are using (and
version number if possible). Note that not all facilities are
currently available and some of the searches may change. The colour of
the interface will also change when the final version is released.
(28th November 2006)
Copac downtime cancelled
The downtime scheduled for 9 and 10 a.m. on Tuesday 5th
December has been cacelled. With apologies for any confusion...
(27th November 2006)
New XML database trial via CopacV3.
You can now explore a trial version of the new Copac XML database using the Copac V3 experimental interface. Select the option to 'Enter Copac V3 experimental interface' above the 'News' section on the Copac Home Page.
The new
records should look, on the surface, very similar to the existing
Copac displays, the main visible change is the ability to search for, and
display, records containing non-roman scripts. For example, searches for either of the following author names will find records containing non-roman script text:
Author= Taghuj
Author= Tang, Changru
If you are able to enter non-roman script characters you can try searching with these too.
Please tell us about any problems you may have, as well as sending us any general comments about the records.
You can also access the trial XML database via Z39.50 and
SRW/SRU. Connection details are:
Address: z3950.copac.ac.uk
Port: 2000
Database name: copac
Record syntax: a choice of MODS XML GRS1, SUTRS
No username or password are required.
Please let us know about any problems you have with these interfaces. (Full documentation will be made available nearer the release of the new database in early 2007)
Notes:
- The new database is still being built and is very active. This means that at times it may be SLOW to respond. Please be patient. Stopping and re-starting a search will not make it any faster.
- The database is not yet complete so not all of our contributing libraries' catalogues will appear in your search results.
- Record de-duplication in the database is ongoing, so you may see duplicate records in your search results
- The interface is just to allow you to try the new database. It does not include all the facilities that are currently available on Copac and this is not how the interface will appear when the final move to the XML database takes place early in 2007.
- Copac V3 is subject to change without notice.
If you have any comments about the new records etc. please get in touch with the Copac helpdesk (copac@mimas.ac.uk).
(3rd November 2006)
Copac downtime 9-10am on the 5th Dec.
Copac will be unavailable during 9 and 10 a.m. on Tuesday 5th
December. This is to allow essential system maintenance to take
place. With apologies for any inconveninece caused.
(22nd November 2006)
School of Advanced Study Reload: this catalogue is now part of the University of London - ULRLS
The catalogue of the School of Advanced Study (SAS) has now been
merged with the catalogue of the University of London - ULRLS. To reflect this
change we need to reload the SAS data and incorporate it into the
ULRLS data. The existing SAS records are currently being removed and
the new records will start appearing shortly.
(24th October 2006)
New Copac XML database under development
We are in the process of building a completely new Copac database. This will include:
- A new library - the National Art Library of the V&A.
- New duplicate detection, reducing the number of duplicate records in the search results.
- The ability to search for, and display, materials in non-roman scripts such as Arabic and Chinese.
- For academic users there will be a link in each record that will take you to your own library's OpenURL resolver. This should offer you a variety of options for obtaining a copy of any document you have identified on Copac, eg. details of your local inter-library loan service. However, the information and services provided are entirely at the discretion of your own library.
When the database development is complete we hope to make a number of interface changes, so now this is a good time to get in touch with the Helpdesk and tell us what you like and dislike about the current interface and service generally, as well as suggesting new facilities you would find be valuable. We can then feed these comments into the interface development process.
We are anticipating that the new Copac database will be available early in 2007, with a trial version being made available some time before then via the experimental Copac V3 interface.
Technicalities: the database will be in XML format enhancing Copac inter-operability with other services. Record details etc. will be made available nearer the release date. Z39.50 and other forms of machine-to-machine interface to Copac will coninue to be available.
31st August 2006
Copac downtime Tue 31st October 7am-9am
There will be a major network upgrade in the North-west area on Tue 31st October 7am-9am. More than one network outage is anticipated so access to Copac is likely to be intermittent during this period.
Further network disruption is possible on the following contingency dates:
Thu 2nd November 7am-9am - contingency date
Tue 7th November 7am-9am - contingency date
This will not be confirmed until after the initial upgrade, but the service should be considered at risk during these times.
With apologies for the short notice - the upgrade date has only
just been agreed.
(24th October 2006)
2006 July to September
Service disruption
The Copac service was not operating from approximately 10:15am to
2:30pm on 31st July and from 5pm on the 31st July until 11:20am on 1st
August. Please accept our apologies for this disruption to the
service.
1st August 2006
2006 April to June
MIMAS Open Forum 2006 - for members of the UK academic community
This year's Open Forum will take place on 28 June 2006 in
Manchester. There will be presentations on developments in a
range of MIMAS related services, included recent and forthcoming
Copac developments. In the afternoon there will be workshops on
Jorum, Intute, and the Satellite Image Data Service.
14th June
2006.
2006 January to March
Completion of Wellcome Library reload
We have completed the reload of the Wellcome library
catalogue. The full Wellcome catalogue is available again on
Copac.
22nd February 2006
COinS OpenURL link in Copac V3
The Copac v3 Experimental Interface now has COinS in the full record display. The COinS is an HTML element that contains an OpenURL and is structured in such as way that it is not normally visible. To make the COinS useful (and visible) you need to install an extension into your web browser.
One such extension is Openly Informatics' OpenURL Referrer for the Firefox browser. Once installed the extension can be configured to make the COinS into a clickable link that delivers an OpenURL to your Institutional OpenURL Resolver.
Wellcome Library reload
Owing to major local system changes we are reloading the
catalogue of the Wellcome Library for the History and
Understanding of Medicine. The existing Wellcome Library records
are being removed and the new records will start appearing
shortly.
13th February 2006
2005 news archive
2005 October to December
Copac available over Christmas but with no Helpdesk
Copac will be running unsupported over the Christmas holiday, from 23rd December to the 2nd January inclusive. Any enquiries to the Copac Helpdesk will be responded to as soon as possible when we're back in work on the 3rd January. (December 21st 2005)
**Season's greetings from the Copac team **
Scott Polar Research Institute, Russian & East European Studies collection records loaded onto Copac
We have loaded records giving details of Russian & East
European Studies materials held at the Scott Polar Research
Institute (SPRI), University of Cambridge. SPRI was a member of
the COCOREES project and the
subsequent CoFoR project. Most
of the other project members were CURL member libraries whose
records are incorporated into the Copac database. Adding the
records from SPRI, plus the other project libraries, will mean
all the materials relevant to the project are included on Copac,
increasing the accessiblity of Russian & East European
Studies materials.
(2nd November 2005)
2005 July to September
University of Bradford Russian & East European Studies collection records loaded onto Copac
We have loaded records giving details of Russian & East
European Studies materials held at the University of Bradford.
Bradford was a member of the COCOREES project and the
subsequent CoFoR project. Most
of the other project members were CURL member libraries whose
records are incorporated into the Copac database. Adding the
records from the University of Bradford, plus the other project
libraries, will mean all the materials relevant to the project
are included on Copac, increasing the accessiblity of Russian
& East European Studies materials.
(15th September 2005)
Completed Nottingham reload
The reload of the University of Nottingham catalogue is now
complete. This has been carried out as a result of major local
catalogue changes.
26th August 2005
Nottingham reload ongoing
Owing to major local changes we are reloading the University
of Nottingham catalogue. The old Nottingham records have been
removed and the new catalogue data is appearing.
22nd August 2005
Nottingham reload started
Owing to major local changes we have begun reloading the
University of Nottingham catalogue. The old Nottingham records
have been removed and the new catalogue data will start appearing
shortly.
17th August 2005
SOAS catalogue load complete & live local holdings information available
We have completed loading the catalogue of the School of Oriental and African
Studies (SOAS). Copac also has live holdings information for
materials held by SOAS. This means that when you view the Local
Holdings display for SOAS you can see details of all the copies
of a document, where they are held, whether any copies are
on-loan and, if so, when they are due back.
1st August 2005
New catalogue load: School of Oriental and African Studies
We have begun loading the catalogue of the School of Oriental and African
Studies (SOAS) and you will be starting to see SOAS records
in your search results. SOAS is a leading centre for the study of
diverse subjects relating to Asia, Africa and the Middle
East.
(20th July 2005)
Copac downtime: c.20 mins. during 7-9am, 29th July
Emergency maintenance of the JANET academic network will be
taking place in the Manchester area between 7am-9am on Friday
29th July. It is expected part of the network will be down for
approx. 20 minutes during this period and Copac will be
inaccessible whilst this work takes place.
(27th July 2005)
Completion of University of London Library (ULL) reload and name change
The University of London Library (ULL) reload is complete. ULL
has been renamed the University of London Research Library
Services (ULRLS) and their holdings on Copac are now shown as
shown as University of London - ULRLS.
(4th July 2005).
2005 April to June
Copac downtime
Maintenance of the JANET academic network will be taking place
in Manchester between 7am-9am on Tuesday 5th July. It is expected
the network will be down for approx. 1 hour during this period
and Copac will be inaccessible whilst this work takes
place.
(June 23rd 2005)
University of London Library (ULL) reload and name change
The University of London Library (ULL) catalogue has been
removed in preparation for reloading the data. This is in
response to major local system changes. ULL has been renamed the
University of London Research Library Services (ULRLS), so in
future ULL holdings on Copac will be shown as University of
London - ULRLS.
(20th June 2005).
University of Essex Russian & East European Studies collection records loaded onto Copac
We have loaded records giving details of Russian & East
European Studies materials held at the University of Essex. Essex
was a member of the COCOREES project and the
subsequent CoFoR project. Most
of the other project members were CURL member libraries whose
records are incorporated into the Copac database. Adding the
records from the University of Essex, plus the other libraries to
follow, will mean all the materials relevant to the project are
accessible through Copac.
(20th May 2005)
London School of Economics catalogue reload complete
We have completed the reload of the London School of Economics
catalogue onto Copac.
(18th May 2005).
University of Aberdeen catalogue reload complete
We have completed the reload of the Aberdeen catalogue onto
Copac. The LSE reload process is ongoing.
(5th May 2005).
Reloading of the University of Aberdeen and the London School of Economics catalogues.
We have started reloading the catalogues of the University of
Aberdeen and the London School of Economics (LSE). This is in
response to major local library system changes. Old records from
the Aberdeen and LSE catalogues are being removed from the Copac
database and new records will start appearing shortly.
(25th April 2005)
2005 January to March
National Library of Wales/Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru catalogue load complete.
We have finished loading the catalogue of the National Library
of Wales/Llyfrgell Genedlaethol
Cymru. This brings to 27 the number of catalogues included
on Copac, plus additional special collections from other
libraries. A full list of our contributing libraries is available
on our 'Libraries' page.
(Febuary 2005)
New catalogue on Copac - loading the National Library of Wales/Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru catalogue and removal of NLW/LLGC from Copac V3 cross-database search
We have begun loading the catalogue of the National Library of Wales/Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru (NLW/LLGC) onto Copac and you will be starting to see their records in your search results. Copac will actually include two NLW/LLGC catalogues. These are the main library catalogue and also the non-print materials catalogue, which includes "archives catalogued since 1999, framed works of art, photographic archives of Geoff Charles and John Thomas, research dissertations, and topographical prints (Tirlun Cymru)."
Copac V3 has in the past offered remote searchiing of the
NLW/LLGC catalogue throough the Copac interface. This option will
be removed as the search results from the remote search of
NLW/LLGC will now duplicate the results obtained from searching
Copac.
(16th Febuary 2005)
Bristol reload complete
The reload of the University of Bristol catalogue is complete
and all the Bristol data is available again.
(27th January 2005)
Bristol reload started
Owing to some significant data changes we are reloading the
University of Bristol catalogue. The old Bristol data has been
removed and the new data is now being loaded.
(24th January 2005)
Copac & OpenURL
Copac is now OpenURL compliant, so you can link from your service to Copac through this means. We are also linking from Copac records to library OpenURL resolvers.
Access to Copac through OpenURL
If you wish to create links from your service to Copac using
OpenURL, the base address for Copac OpenURL access is:
http://copac.ac.uk/openurl
Copac uses standard OpenURL parameters. You will find more details on the Copac Web site at: http://copac.ac.uk/interfaces/openurl/
Links from Copac records to Library OpenURL resolvers
If you do a search using the Copac V3 experimental interface, you will find that each Full Record display now includes an OpenURL link. Selecting this link will take you to your own library OpenURL resolver - if you have one. If not, it will take you to the general access resolvers LitLink and getCopy. Copac V3 is accessible from the Copac Home Page (http://copac.ac.uk/)
For some library OpenURL resolvers this facility seems to work well, leading the searcher from the Copac record to a check on their local catalogue for the item, and/or to their inter-library loan service. However, other resolvers assume the requested item is a journal article, which for a service such as Copac is generally not the case. You might like to look at the way your own library resolver is responding.
If the OpenURL link in the Copac record doesn't automatically
take you to your own OpenURL resolver, this may mean your
resolver is not registered with the OpenURL Router at
Edina:
http://openurl.ac.uk/doc/
We would very much appreciate feedback on these OpenURL
developments. Please get in touch with us at the Copac Helpdesk
copac@mimas.ac.uk with any comments or questions you may
have.
(January 2005)
2004 news archive
2004 October to December
New Copac computer system & revised web site
The move to the new Copac computer system is now complete.
This is a more powerful machine and should help reduce response
time problems which arose on the old machine as a result of high
levels of use. As part of the move the Copac supporting web site
has been restructured and revised. Copac itself is unchanged in
appearance. If you notice any problems with the new Web pages, or
you have any comments on them, please let us know by contacting
the Copac helpdesk copac@mimas.ac.uk
(December 2004)
Bristol reload started
Owing to some significant data changes we are reloading the University of Bristol catalogue. The old Bristol data has been removed and the new data is now being loaded. (24th January 2005)
Copac Text Interface withdrawn
The Copac Text interface to Copac has been withdrawn. The recent usage of this interface has been low and the levels of use no longer justify the work required to maintain it. (December 2004)
Copac unsupported over Xmas
Copac will be running unsupported over the Christmas holiday, from 23rd December to the 4th January inclusive. Any enquiries to the Copac Helpdesk will be responded to as soon as possible when we're back in work on the 5th January. (December 21st 2004)
**Seasons greetings from the Copac team **
Copac access 'at risk' 7-9am on 7th December
As a result of network maintenance activity in the Manchester area there may be some loss of access to Copac during the 'at risk' period 7-9am on Tuesday 7th December. Work is expected to be complete by 8am.
Recent loss of Copac service
Shortly after 12.00 on the 15th November a faulty mains cable
caused a complete loss of power to a number of buildings at the
University of Manchester, including Manchester Computing. As the
power came back on later in the afternoon a small fire occurred.
When our systems staff were finally able to bring the systems
back it was discovered that a serious hardware fault had occurred
in our aging system. This required some replacement hardware and
a lot of work to bring Copac and some other MIMAS services back.
The services were finally restored c. 2.00 Wednesday 17th
November. We are sorry for any problems this loss of service may
have caused you. We are in the process of moving to our new
system and in the longer term similar system failures should
cause the system to fail-over to another computer situated
elsewhere - providing a back-up to reduce the likelihood of a
complete loss of service.
(17th November 2004)
Copac at risk 16th Nov. 7-9am
Network maintenance has been scheduled to take place in this
area from 7am to 9am on Tuesday 16 November 2004. As a result,
Copac may be unavailable for some time during this period. We
apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you.
(8th November 2004)
2004 July to September
Copac computer system move
Over the next month or so Copac will be moving to a new
computer system. It is hoped that this will resolve the response
time problems that some users have experienced as a result of
high levels of use on the current system. It is not anticipated
that the changeover will involve any significant break in
service.
(23rd September 2004)
University of Nottingham catalogue now reloading
We have started reloading the catalogue of the University of
Nottingham. This is in response to major local library system
changes. Old records from the Nottingham catalogue have been
removed from the Copac database and new records are now
appearing.
(20th September 2004)
Reload of the University of Nottingham catalogue
We have started reloading the catalogue of the University of
Nottingham. This is in response to major local library system
changes. Old records from the Nottingham catalogue are being
removed from the Copac database and new records will be appearing
shortly.
(13th September 2004)
University of Warwick catalogue reload complete
We have completed the reload of University of Warwick
catalogue. This reload was carried out in response to major local
library system changes.
(24th August 2004)
Ending of Copac Text Interface Dec. 2004
**Use of the Copac Text Interface via telnet has been low for some time, so it has been decided that the levels of use no longer merit the maintenance of this interface to Copac. It is planned that the Text Interface to Copac will be withdrawn in December 2004.
If the loss of the Text Interface to Copac will cause you
particular problems please let us know by contacting the helpdesk
at:
copac@mimas.ac.uk **
(6th July 2004)
2004 April to June
School of Advanced Study (SAS) catalogue reload complete
We have completed reloading the catalogue of the School of
Advanced Study (SAS) Libraries. Live local holdings information
is available for this group of libraries. Amongst other things
this will tell you which of the SAS libraries actually holds a
document and whether it is currently on-loan.
(21st June 2004)
Reload of the University of Warwick catalogue
We have started reloading the catalogue of the University of
Warwick. This is in response to major local library system
changes. Old records from the Warwick catalogue have been removed
from the Copac database and new records are appearing.
(16th July 2004)
MIMAS Open Forum
The MIMAS Open Forum will take place on 30 June 2004 in
Manchester, the event is open to all members of the UK academic
community. There is no charge to attend, but booking is
essential.
(June 2004)
School of Advanced Study catalogue reload ongoing
The catalogue of the School of Advanced Study Libraries is
being reloaded. This is in response to major local library system
changes. Old records from the School of Advanced Study have been
removed from the Copac database and new records are now
appearing.
(27th May 2004)
Reload of the School of Advanced Study catalogue
We have started reloading the catalogue of the School of
Advanced Study. This is in response to major local library system
changes. Old records from the School of Advanced Study are being
removed from the Copac database and new records will be appearing
shortly.
(27th May 2004)
Live holdings information for Newcastle and UCL
We have made available live holdings information for materials
held by UCL (University College London). In addition, the
completion of the reload of the Newcastle catalogue has allowed
us to reinstate the live holdings information for this library.
This means that when you view the Local Holdings display for
these libraries you can see details of all the copies of a
document, where they are held, whether any copies are on-loan
and, if so, when they are due back. This brings to 19 the number
of libraries for which live holdings information is
available.
(6th May 2004)
Newcastle reload complete
We have completed the reload of the University of Newcastle
Library catalogue. This has been carried out in response to major
local library system changes at Newcastle.
(5th May 2004)
Reload of the Newcastle catalogue
We have started reloading the catalogue of the University of
Newcastle Library. This is in response to major local library
system changes. Old Newcastle records have been removed from the
Copac database and the new records are now reappearing.
(26th April 2004)
Copac unavailable for a short period on 27th April
Emergency maintenance on the national JANET network means
Copac is expected to be unavailable for a short time during the
at-risk period 7:00 - 9:00am on Tuesday 27th April 2004. The work
is expected to take no longer than 15 minutes.
(26th April 2004)
Reloading Newcastle catalogue
We have started reloading the catalogue of the University of
Newcastle Library. This is in response to major local library
system changes. Old Newcastle records have been removed from the
Copac database and the new records will start to appear
shortly.
(22nd April 2004)
Copac receives 'certificate of excellence' for website accessibility
The Copac service has been awarded a certificate of excellence for a website that is accessible to people with disabilities. During the past year the Centre for HCI design at City University has carried out a large-scale study of web site accessibility for the Disability Rights Commission. At the recent launch event for the report's findings, Copac was one of only 5 web sites from the 1000 tested that received a commendation for its ease of use by people with disabilities. It was noted that those sites that proved most accessible were also those that proved easiest to use by non-disabled users.
The ethos underlying Copac has always been one of surface
simplicity to support ease of use by all researchers and
accessibility for users with disabilities has been one element of
this general concern with usability. Further developments are
planned to enhance Copac accessibility, ensuring the service is
available to the widest possible range of searchers. The full
report is available from:
http://www-hcid.soi.city.ac.uk/rhDrc.html
(21st April 2004)
Copac Downtime
Copac is expected to be unavailable from 8am on Tuesday 20th
April for up to two hours. This is to allow maintenance work to
be carried out on the system on which Copac runs.
(8th April 2004)
2004 January to March
Reload of Trinity College Dublin Catalogue
We have reloaded the catalogue of Trinity College Dublin. This
has been carried out in response to major local library system
changes.
(5th March 2004)
Load of St Andrews Special Collection records
We have loaded c. 36,000 records from the University of St
Andrews Special Collections. These records were created as part
of recent RSLP
projects: the Pamphlets and Polemic
project concerned with pamphlets as a guide to the
controversies of the 17th to 19th century; and the Revelation project, improving
access to works of 19th and 20th-century Church History and
Christian Theology. Most of the other project members were CURL
member libraries whose records are incorporated into the Copac
database. Adding the records from St Andrews means all the
records created for these projects are accessible through
Copac.
(23rd February 2004)
Load of Lampeter Special Collection records
We have loaded c. 20,300 records from the University of Wales
Lampeter, Founders' Library. These records were created as part
of recent RSLP
projects: the Pamphlets and Polemic
project concerned with pamphlets as a guide to the
controversies of the 17th to 19th century; and the Revelation project, improving
access to works of 19th and 20th-century Church History and
Christian Theology. Most of the other project members were CURL
member libraries whose records are incorporated into the Copac
database. Adding the records from Lampeter means all the records
created for these projects will be accessible through Copac in
due course. Records created by St Andrews as for the RSLP
projects will be loaded into Copac shortly.
(20th February 2004)
Cambridge reload complete
We have completed the reload of the Cambridge University catalogue. Real-time circulation data is also now available for documents from the Cambridge University catalogue. This means that when you view the Cambridge Holdings Display for a document you can see how many copies there are, whether they are currently on-loan and, if so, when they are due back. (More on local holdings in the 2000 news archive) (2nd February 2004)
Copac Downtime 3rd February
Copac is expected to be unavailable from 9am on Tuesday 3rd
February for at least two hours. This is to allow emergency
repair work to be carried out on the system on which Copac runs.
With apologies for the short notice.
(2nd February 2004)
Copac Upgrade Completed
On 6th January we carried out an upgrade to the COPAC
interface. This introduced the new Map search interface that has
been on trial for some time in the experimental Copac V3
service.
(6th January 2004)
Copac Upgrade Tuesday 6th January
We will be carrying out an upgrade to the Copac interface
during the 'at-risk' period on the morning of Tuesday 6th
January. There may be minor disruption to the service when the
upgrade takes place, but it is expected that the work will be
complete by 10am. The upgrade will introduce the new Map search
interface that has been on trial for some time in the
experimental Copac V3 service.
(5th January 2004)
2003 news archive
2003 October to December
Christmas & New Year Helpdesk arrangements
Seasons Greetings from the COPAC team
The COPAC service will be available over the Christmas and New
Year holidays. However, there will be no Helpdesk support from
24th December to 4th January inclusive. All enquiries sent to the
Helpdesk will be recorded and will be dealt with as soon as
possible from January 5th.
(18th December)
Glasgow reload complete
We have completed the reload of the University of Glasgow
catalogue. The Cambridge University catalogue reload is ongoing
and will be completed in the New Year.
(18th December)
Quick UCL reload completed
We are doing a 'quick' reload of the catalogue of UCL
(University College London) and expect the new records to
available shortly. This is to ensure the full UCL database is
available on COPAC when the UCL library system is upgraded and is
unavailable for a short period in the New Year. When other COPAC
reloads are complete the UCL catalogue will be reloaded again on
COPAC, this time undergoing full record de-duplication and merger
with the other COPAC records, a procedure that does not take
place in a quick reload.
(18th December)
COPAC Downtime 16th December
Owing to local network maintenance COPAC is likely to be
unavailable for a short period on Tuesday 16th December. Work is
planned to take place at 7.30am and should last no longer than 15
minutes, with a full service resumed by 7.45am. However access to
COPAC should be considered at risk until 8.30am.
(2nd Dec 2003)
Reloading Cambridge and Glasgow catalogues
We have started reloading the catalogues of the University of
Glasgow Library and Cambridge University Library. This is in
response to major local library system changes. Old records from
these libraries are being removed from the Copac database and the
new records will start to appear shortly.
(27th November)
Load of Reading Pamphlets records
We have loaded c. 3,300 records from the University of Reading
Library. These records were created as part of a recent RSLP project,
the 19th century
pamphlets project, concerned with improving access to 19th
Century Pamphlet Collections (1801-1914). Most of the other
project members were CURL member libraries whose records are
incorporated into the COPAC database. Adding the pamphlet records
from Reading means all the records created for this project are
accessible through COPAC. Records created as part of some other
RSLP projects will be loaded into COPAC in the future.
(11th November 2003)
COPAC downtime 17th November
COPAC will be unavailable whilst emergency hardware
maintenance takes place on the morning of Monday 17th Nov. The
maintenance is planned for 8am and is expected to take at least
two hours. We are sorry for any any inconvenience this may cause
you.
(14th November 2003)
National Library of Scotland catalogue load complete
We have completed the load of National
Library of Scotland (NLS) catalogue onto COPAC. This is a
large legal deposit catalogue (c. 3.5 million records) which
enhances the range of materials available on COPAC, particularly
those relating to the study of Scotland and the Scots. Most
documents are for reference use within NLS only, but those with
the classmark prefix 'ILS' are available for inter-library loan.
At the moment a significant proportion of the loanable stock is
not recorded in the NLS main catalogue, so will not be visible on
COPAC either, but the ILS collection contains items published in
Scotland or about Scotland.
(4th November 2003)
Interface Upgrade Complete
We have carried out an upgrade to the COPAC interface this
morning (Tuesday 7th October). This has introduced some minor
changes to the COPAC screens, the most significant being a change
to the appearance of the Brief Record display. We have changed
the layout slightly and introduced an explicit link from each
Brief Record to the Full Record display for that item. You can
also still use the record number to link from the Brief Record to
the Full Record display. In addition, the upgrade introduced
behind-the-scenes changes to enhance system response to some
queries.
(October 7th 2003)
Load of the National Library of Scotland catalogue
We have begun loading the catalogue of the National Library
of Scotland (NLS) onto COPAC. You will now be starting to see
NLS records in your result sets. This is a large legal deposit
catalogue (c. 3.5 million records) which will enhance the range
of materials available on COPAC, particularly those relating to
the study of Scotland and the Scots. Most documents are for
reference use within NLS only, but those with the classmark
prefix 'ILS' are available for inter-library loan. At the moment
a significant proportion of the loanable stock is not recorded in
the NLS main catalogue, so will not be visible on COPAC either,
but the ILS collection contains items published in Scotland or
about Scotland.
(29th August 2003)
Interface Upgrade Tuesday 7th October
We will be carrying out an upgrade to the COPAC interface during the 'at-risk' period on the morning of Tuesday 7th October. There may be minor disruption to the service when the upgrade takes place, but it is expected that the work will be complete by 9am.
The upgrade will introduce some minor changes to the COPAC
screens, the most significant being a change to the appearance of
the Brief Record display. We have changed the layout slightly and
introduced an explicit link from each Brief Record to the Full
Record display for that item. You will also still be able to use
record number to link from the Brief record to the Full Record
display. The upgrade will also introduce behind-the-scenes
changes to enhance system response to some queries.
(October 2nd 2003)
2003 July to September
University of Bristol circulation data now available
Real-time circulation data is now available for documents from
the University of Bristol catalogue. This means that when you
view the Bristol Holdings Display for a document you can see how
many copies there are, whether they are currently on-loan and, if
so, when they are due back. This circulation data is now
available for 18 libraries and we hope more will be included in
the near future. (More on local
holdings in the 2000 news archive)
(2nd September 2003)
University of Bristol catalogue load complete
We have completed loading the catalogue of the University of
Bristol Library onto COPAC. The COPAC database now gives access
to 25 academic library catalogues plus
the catalogues of the British Library.
(26th August 2003)
King's College London circulation data now available
Real-time circulation data is now available for documents from
the catalogue of King's College London. This means that when you
view the King's College Holdings Display for a document you can
see how many copies there are, whether they are currently on-loan
and, if so, when they are due back. This circulation data is now
available for 17 libraries and we hope more will be included in
the near future. (More on local
holdings in the 2000 news archive)
(8th August 2003)
Loading the University of Bristol catalogue
We have begun loading the catalogue of the University of
Bristol Library onto the COPAC database. You will be starting to
see Bristol records in your search results. This brings to 25 the
number of catalogues included on COPAC.
(19th August 2003)
Durham Library catalogue reload complete
We have completed the reload of Durham library
catalogue.
(7th August 2003)
Durham Library catalogue reloading
We are reloading the catalogue of the University of Durham
Library because of changes to their library system. The old
Durham catalogue records have been removed and the new ones are
currently being loaded.
(31st July 2003)
COPAC unavailable c. 1 hour on the 5th of August
A network upgrade in the Manchester area means COPAC is likely to be inaccessible for a short while on the morning of Tuesday the 5th of August. Work will start at 7.30am and is expected to take less than an hour, but the service will be at risk until 9.00am.
King's College London Library catalogue upgrade
We are upgrading the King's College Library catalogue records.
To do this they have been removed from the database. Half the
records should be available again shortly, whilst we expect the
remainder to be fully reloaded later today. [Completed 30th
July]
(30th July 2003)
Load of King's College London Library Catalogue
We have loaded the catalogue of King's College London
Library. This incorporates the catalogue of the Courtauld
Institute of Art Library. You will find King's records are
now appearing in your search results.
(16th July 2003)
2003 April to June
COPAC Downtime on 23rd July 8am to 10am BST
Our apologies for the short notice, but due to a hardware
problem COPAC will be unavailable from 8am to 10am BST on
Wednesday 23rd July, 2003.
(22nd June 2003)
COPAC unavailable for 1 hour Tuesday July 1st
COPAC will be unavailable for at least one hour from 07.30 am
on Tuesday July 1st. The interruption is due to network
maintenance work which will prevent access to Manchester
Computing systems. The work should be finished by 08.30 am, but
services should be considered 'at risk' until 09.00.
(17th June 2003)
MIMAS Open Forum for members of the UK academic community
The MIMAS Open Forum for the UK academic community will be
held on 2 July 2003. You can view the programme and reserve your
place at:
http://www.mimas.ac.uk/news/mof2003/
This annual event normally attracts over 100 people, bringing together users, teachers and support staff interested in online information and learning resources, in UK higher and further education, and presents news of current and future developments at MIMAS and in the academic information environment. There are workshops and opportunities to meet staff.
This year we can celebrate ten years as a JISC-designated National Data Centre.
The programme includes talks on Digital Preservation, the JORUM+ project, JISC Resource Guides, and the new Economic and Social Data Service.
In the afternoon there will be 3 parallel sessions:
- Economic and Social Data Service
- ISI Web of Science / Knowledge
- Bibliographic Update (Archives Hub, COPAC and zetoc)
It is free to attend, but you must book in advance.
http://www.mimas.ac.uk/news/mof2003/
20th May 2003
Imperial reload complete
We have completed the reload of the catalogue of the Imperial
College of Science, Technology and Medicine Library. The data was
fully restored at the end of Friday 23rd May.
(28th May 2003)
COPAC Downtime Friday 23rd May
A hardware fault has developed in the machine on which COPAC
runs. On Friday 23rd May at 8am, COPAC will be unavailable for
about 1 hour whilst remedial work is carried out on the system.
It is expected that the service will be running normally again by
9am.
(22nd May 2003)
Imperial Library catalogue reload
We are reloading the catalogue of the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Library because of changes to their catalogue. The old Imperial Library data has been removed from COPAC and the loading of the new records will begin shortly. (15th May 2003)
New Database on COPAC: the British Library Register of Preservation Surrogates
COPAC has recently been enhanced by the addition of the British Library Register of Preservation Surrogates database, (currently known as the Register of Preservation Microforms - name change pending). Web browser access to this database is currently only available through COPAC.
The Register of Preservation Surrogates is a national database with details of surrogate copies of printed books, journals etc. The copies have been made from originals held in a range of libraries and other institutions. At the moment the copies are normally in archival microform, but other formats may be available. The database is also the host for records of materials produced by the Chadwyck-Healey Nineteenth Century filming project.
To obtain a copy of a document surrogate you need to contact the organisation that made the surrogate. For each record the COPAC Local Holdings display includes full details of the surrogate and the institution that made it. You will find a link to each of the institutions responsible for making the surrogates on the COPAC Current Contributors web page: http://copac.ac.uk/libraries/#rps
The Local Holdings display also includes the name of the institution holding the original document from which the surrogate was made. Where the holding institution is a library the shelf location of the document in the library may be available, as well as notes relating to it.
You will now be seeing Register of Preservation Surrogates records in your search results. To restrict your search just to these records choose the 'Register of Preservation Surrogates' option from the 'Libraries' list on the COPAC search screens.
If you have any comments about these developments please get
in touch with the COPAC Helpdesk: copac@mimas.ac.uk
(25th April 2003)
2003 January to March
COPAC at risk Tuesday the 8th of April
North West region network maintenance will be taking place on
Tuesday the 8th of April. As a result of this the COPAC service
will be at risk from 7am that day. It is uncertain how long the
work will take but the service should be considered to be at risk
until 9am.
(March 25th 2003)
COPAC Map search developments
Access to details of cartographic material has been improved by a number of recent COPAC developments.
- The British Library Map Catalogue has been loaded onto COPAC and these records are now included in your COPAC search results. Web browser access to this catalogue is currently only available through COPAC.
- Records from all contributing libraries now include an improved display of map scale information.
- In addition, a new map search interface is available on
COPAC V3, the experimental interface to COPAC. You don't have
to use this interface to find maps, they will be retrieved
using any of the COPAC interfaces, but the map search allows
you to restrict your search just to cartographic items such as
maps, nautical charts, atlases, some plans and topographical
drawings. The map search also includes new search options, in
the form of a place name search and both exact and fuzzy map
scale searching. You can access COPAC V3 from the COPAC Home
Page at:
http://copac.ac.uk/ - We have also added a couple of new fields to the COPAC
Download record. One is for any URL's that appear in the
records, the other is for map scale information. The COPAC
EndNote connection file and Reference Manager filter file have
been updated to incorporate these new fields. You can download
copies of these files from the FAQ page at:
http://copac.ac.uk/faq.html#import
We would appreciate feedback on these developments and in
particular we would like comments on the map search interface on
COPAC V3. You can contact us by filling in the COPAC V3 feedback
form, or by emailing the Helpdesk: copac@mimas.ac.uk
(20th March 2003)
COPAC Unavailable early 18th February
The national JANet computer network in this area will be out of service for scheduled maintenance during the JANet 'at-risk' period, 07:00 - 09:00 GMT, on Tuesday 18th February 2003.
There will be no network access to Manchester University while this maintenance is being carried out, which means that COPAC will be unavailable. We are sorry for the inconvenience this will cause you. (6th February 2003)
Wellcome catalogue reload complete
We have completed the reload of the catalogue of the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. This reload been carried out due to an upgrade of their database, with extensive changes to their records. (6th February 2003)
Wellcome Library catalogue reload
We are reloading the catalogue of the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. This is due to an upgrade of their database, with extensive changes to their records. The old Wellcome Library data is being removed from COPAC and the loading of the new records will begin shortly. (30th January 2003)
2002 news archive
2002 October to December
Helpdesk arrangements for the Christmas Holiday period
From the 24 December 2002 to 1 January 2003 inclusive, you can
send queries to the COPAC helpdesk and these will be recorded.
All enquiries sent over the holiday period will be replied to
from the 2nd January. The COPAC service will be available
throughout the Christmas Period.
Seasons Greetings from the COPAC team
(December 2002)
Wellcome Library circulation data now available
Real-time circulation data is now available for documents held
by the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of
Medicine. This means that when you view the Wellcome Library
Holdings Display for a document you can see how many copies there
are, whether they are currently on-loan and, if so, when they are
due back. This circulation data is now available for 16 libraries
and we hope more will be included in the near future.
(More on local holdings in the 2000
news archive) (November 2002)
New COPAC interface
A new version of the COPAC Web interface will be released on Tuesday 22nd October. This incorporates a number of new features:
- A 'Go to page...' feature allows you to move quickly to any page of a large result set.
- In the Full Record display you can initiate a new search by clicking on highlighted sections of the record, including Author, Title, and Subject headings.
- Record Tagging is now completely reliable, removing the problems associated with use of the browser Back button.
- You can now download records directly to your PC rather than requesting them by email.
- There are changes to the download record. New fields have been added to the normal download record and a brief version of the download record is now available. There is also the option of a new download record format, offering a more concise presentation without the field tags.
- The duplicate British Library records are now being consolidated in the result set.
- All Help pages have been fully revised.
The new interface is based on completely revised software. This also means an improved service via Z39.50 access for those using their own origin software, such as EndNote.
If you have any comments or questions, contect the COPAC
Helpdesk at: copac@mimas.ac.uk
(October 2002)
Durham circulation data now available
Real-time circulation data is now available for documents held
by the University of Durham. This means that when you view the
Durham Holdings Display for a document you can see how many
copies there are, whether they are currently on-loan and, if so,
when they are due back. This circulation data is now available
for 15 libraries and we hope more will be included in the near
future.
(More on local holdings in the 2000
news archive) (October 2002)
2002 July to September
COPAC unavailable 8th October 2002
COPAC will be unavailable to most users on Tuesday 8th October
from 05:30am for three hours. This is in order to upgrade the
network link between Manchester Computing and the rest of the
network. Service users based in Manchester or other Net North
West sites should not be affected.
Manchester Computing apologises for any inconvenience this may
cause. (September 2002)
COPAC unavailable 1st October 2002
This is to give warning that COPAC is likely to be unavailable
on Tuesday 1st October from 08:00 am for up to four hours. This
is in order to test and replace a faulty CPU on the host system,
Irwell.
Manchester Computing apologises for any inconvenience this may
cause. (September 2002)
COPAC unavailable, 8am Tuesday 20th August
COPAC will be unavailable from 08.00 on Tuesday 20th August 2002, to allow essential system maintenance to be carried out. This may take up to 4 hours, so the service should be available again by 12.00. Apologies for the inconvenience this will cause. (6th August 2002)
Manchester circulation data now available
Real-time circulation data is now available for documents held
by the University of Manchester. This means that when you view
the Manchester Holdings Display for a document you can see how
many copies there are, whether they are currently on-loan and, if
so, when they are due back. This circulation data is now
available for 14 libraries and we hope more will be included in
the near future.
(More on local holdings in the 2000
news archive) (July 2002)
COPAC Unavailable - 23rd July
COPAC will be unavailable for a short period on Tuesday 23rd
July. The system will be shut down at 8am for approximately 2
hours to allow system maintenance to take place. It should be
back to normal by 10am.
(5th July 2002)
April to June 2002
Southampton circulation data now available
Real-time circulation data is now available for documents held
by the University of Southampton. This means that when you view
the Southampton Holdings Display for a document you can see how
many copies there are, whether they are currently on-loan and, if
so, when they are due back. This circulation data is now
available for 13 libraries and we hope more will be included in
the near future.
(More on local holdings in the 2000
news archive) (June 2002)
The British Library Catalogue is now available on COPAC
The British Library Public Catalogue has been loaded onto COPAC. This represents both reference materials held in the London Reading Rooms:
- Humanities (1975 - )
- Science, Technology & Business (1974 - )
- Retrospective (Pre 1975)
- Music (1980 - )
- Music (Pre 1981 - )
and document supply materials held at the Document Supply Centre at Boston Spa.
- Journals (1700 - )
- Books (Pre 1950 & 1980 - )
- Conference Proceedings (1800 - )
[See the Press release for more information.]
At the moment the British Library records appear as duplicates in the COPAC result set. This is a short-term issue, the British Library records will be merged in with the other COPAC records when the new COPAC V3 interface replaces the existing interface later this year.
There is one limitation, relating to records in non-Roman
scripts such as Arabic and Chinese. COPAC does not currently
handle non-Roman scripts so these records will not display
correctly. The ability to search for, and display, records in
non-Roman scripts is one of the longer-term developments taking
place on COPAC. This is linked to other major database changes
that will be taking place over the next year or so.
(17th June 2002)
COPAC Downtime 14th May
COPAC will be unavailable from 08.00am until c. 10.00am on Tuesday 14th May. This is to allow a hardware upgrade to take place. (May 3rd 2002)
2002 January to March
Aberdeen catalogue load complete
We have completed loading the catalogue of the University of Aberdeen Library. This brings to 22 the number of catalogues included in the COPAC database. (28th March 2002)
New catalogue being loaded - University of Aberdeen
We have begun loading the catalogue of the University of Aberdeen Library, so you will be starting to see Aberdeen records in your search results. The load will be continuing over the next week or so. (8th March 2002)
Service disruption 26th March
COPAC will be unavailable from 08.00 to c.10.00 GMT on Tuesday, March 26th 2002. This is to enable emergency maintenance to be carried out on the host system. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. (25th March 2002)
Service disruption 14th March
COPAC will be unavailable for a short period from 8am on Thursday 14th March 2002. This is to allow system maintenance to be carried out. It is hoped that COPAC will be available again by 8.30. Apologies for the short notice. (13th March 2002)
COPAC Downtime / At Risk
Local network maintenance means that COPAC will be unavailable for a short time on Tuesday the 19th of February. Work will begin at about 8:15am and is not expected to take more than 15 minutes, but the service should be considered 'at risk' until 9am. (6th February)
COPAC Downtime 29 January 2002
COPAC will be unavailable from 8-10am on 29 January 2002. This is to allow a hardware upgrade to take place.
COPAC: a review of the year. (Dec 2001)
2001 has been a productive year for the COPAC service. Thus it seemed appropriate to provide a summary of the major enhancements that have been introduced.
Live circulation data available
Just over a year ago we introduced a new version of the COPAC interface. Amongst other enhancements, this incorporated a new Local Holdings display with live circulation data for some libraries, the number of which has increased to 12 during the year. This live display gives detailed information about the number and location of copies in an institution, plus confirming whether an item is on-loan and when it is due back.
This live data is obtained from the local library system when the user selects the Holdings display. In many cases it uses a Z39.50 request, but not all library systems can supply circulation information in this way. Consequently, cgi scripts are being used to obtain local data from some libraries and we expect more to become accessible through this mechanism.
Accented characters
Encouraged by recent user requests for the display of accented characters, we have enhanced the Web Interface to display Latin 1 (ISO 8859-1) characters. COPAC now also accepts searches that include Latin 1 characters and supplies accented characters in downloaded records.
COPAC V3
The COPAC V3 experimental interface was released in October. This incorporates a number of enhancements, including the following:
A major development is the simultaneous searching of COPAC and/or the National Library of Scotland (NLS) and/or the National Library of Wales/Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru (NLW/LlGC). Search results are de-duplicated and sorted, being presented to the user as a single result set. Searching of NLS and NLW/LlGC is carried out using Z39.50. COPAC V3 is being used as a test bed for this approach to increasing the breadth of coverage of the COPAC service. It has highlighted a number of issues relating to the variable responses of different catalogues and ongoing work includes the provision of behind-the-scenes solutions to reduce the effects of the diverse responses from the three databases.
In COPAC V3 the Full Record displays many elements in the form of links that may be selected to initiate a search, eg, an author name. Searches initiated in this way are included in the Search History and can be re-used as normal. This approach makes it easier for a user to pursue a search using information provided by the retrieved records, but it does highlight issues relating to authority control and we will be looking into this in more detail later.
We have been soliciting feedback on the new interface and have received a number of useful responses. The COPAC V3 feedback form is proving very valuable for obtaining users' general views and requests, and these will be fed into the ongoing development process.
The COPAC database
The COPAC database continues to grow. The catalogues of 21 institutions are now loaded and COPAC holds over 9 million consolidated records.
COPAC Usage
Use of the COPAC service continues to grow. There were nearly 362,400 sessions in November 2001, an increase of more than 914,00 over the November 2000 usage. Figures so far for December suggest that COPAC will have received over 1 million web hits every month in 2001.
2001 news archive
2001 October to December
Catalogue load now complete - The Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine
We have completed loading the catalogue of the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine and also the Wellcome Library Bibliography. The Bibliography includes records for books and articles about the history of medicine that are not held by the Wellcome Library. This means no holdings information is available, but the records serve to alert the interested searcher to the existence of these materials. (10th December 2001)
New catalogue being loaded - The Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine
We have begun loading the catalogue of the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, so you will be starting to see Wellcome Library records in your search results. We are also loading the Wellcome Library Bibliography. The Bibliography includes records for books and articles about the history of medicine that are not held by the Wellcome Library. This means no holdings information is available, but the records serve to alert the interested searcher to the existence of these materials. (28th November 2001)
COPAC Downtime 6th November
COPAC will be unavailable for a short period from 7.45am on Tuesday 6th November. This is to allow system maintenance to take place. It is hoped the service will be accessible again by 10am. (24th October 2001)
* COPAC V3: an Experimental COPAC Interface *
An experimental version of COPAC is now available, called COPAC V3. Amongst other enhancements this allows you to search the COPAC database simultaneously with the catalogues of the National Library of Scotland (NLS) and the National Library of Wales / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru (NLW / LLGC). (29th October 2001)
COPAC Downtime 5th October
COPAC will be unavailable for a short time from 8am on Friday 5th October. This is to allow system maintenance to take place. It is hoped the service will be accessible again before 9am. (4th October 2001)
2001 July to September
Edinburgh circulation data now available
Real-time circulation data is now available for documents
held by the University of Edinburgh. This means that when you
view the Edinburgh Holdings Display for a document you can see
how many copies there are, whether they are currently on-loan,
and if so, when they are due back. This circulation data is now
available for 12 libraries, and we hope more will be included
in the near future. (13th September 2001)
(More on local holdings in the
2000 news archive)
Imperial catalogue reload complete
We have finished reloading the catalogue of the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. This was necessitated by a change in their local library system, with associated changes to their records. (Updated - 12th September 2001)
Imperial catalogue - reload underway
We are reloading the catalogue of the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. This is due to a change in their local library system, with associated changes to their records. The new Imperial data is now being added and the load should be complete in a few days. (Updated - 7th September 2001)
Imperial catalogue reload
We are reloading the catalogue of the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. This is due to a change in their local library system, with associated changes to their records. The old Imperial data is being removed from COPAC and we will be loading the new catalogue records shortly. (5th September 2001)
COPAC at risk Tuesday 11th September
Due to network upgrades taking place in this area COPAC is likely to be unavailable for a short period from 8am on Tuesday 11th September. The disruption is expected to last less than half an hour. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. (5th September 2001)
Accents in record displays
COPAC records are now displaying accented characters and additional European characters, where the necessary information has been supplied by the contributing libraries. These accents etc. will also be present in the records you download. If anyone experiences any problems with this please let us know. (24th July 2001)
COPAC Downtime 6th & 13th August
COPAC will be unavailable on August 6th and 13th from 08:00hrs until 16:00hrs. This is to permit essential maintenance of the machine on which COPAC runs. We apologise for the inconvenience this will cause.(23rd July 2001)
Coming Soon - Accents
Recent development work means that we can now show accented characters on COPAC, where the accent information has been supplied by the contributing libraries. From Tuesday 24th July the record diplays will include accented characters and these will also be present in the records you download. If anyone experiences any problems with this please let us know. (17th July 2001)
COPAC Inaccessible
COPAC will be unavailable from 05.00am until 07.30 am Tuesday July 17th. This is due to due to emergency maintenance of the JANET network. With apologies for the short-notice. (16th July 2001)
Warwick circulation data now available
Real-time circulation data is now available for documents
held by the University of Warwick. This means that when you
view the Warwick Holdings Display for a document you can see
how many copies there are, whether they are currently on-loan,
and if so, when they are due back. This circulation data is now
available for 11 libraries, and we hope more will be included
in the near future. (6th July 2001)
(More on local holdings in the
2000 news archive)
2001 April to June
COPAC Inaccessible - Work postponed
The reported disruption has now been postponed. We will let you know as soon as we are given a re-scheduled date. "A period of Emergency Maintenance on the telecommunications circuit connecting Net Northwest to the JANET network will take place on Tuesday 3rd July." (POSTPONED) (29th June 2001)
MIMAS Open Forum on 28 June 2001
The MIMAS Open Forum is an annual event which highlights current and future MIMAS service developments (including COPAC). MIMAS hosts bibliographic reference, socio-economic, spatial, and scientific data for the UK academic community.
There is no charge for attending the event which is open to all members of the UK Further and Higher Education community.
Full details and the registration form are available on the MIMAS Web site. (19th June 2001)
COPAC Downtime 12th June
COPAC will be unavailable from 08:00hrs Tuesday 12 June 2001 for system maintenance. It is expected that the downtime will last less than 30 minutes. (31st May 2001)
COPAC Downtime 15th May
COPAC will be unavailable from 09:00 hrs Tuesday 15 May 2001. This is to permit maintenance work on Irwell, the machine on which COPAC runs. It is hoped that the work will take no longer than 1 hour.
Now we are 5
COPAC has been online for over five years. In that time there have been well over 6 million sessions combined over our web, telnet and z39.50 interfaces. Usage continues to increase and always peaks in the months before Christmas and Easter. The number of libraries included in the database has increased from 4 to 20 and there are more to come. (May 2001)
COPAC Downtime 24th April
A system upgrade means there will be a short interruption to the COPAC service. This will occur on Tuesday 24 April 2001, starting at 9am. The service should be available by 10am. (18th April 2001)
Edinburgh Re-load complete
The reload of the Edinburgh University Library catalogue onto COPAC is now complete. (9th April 2001)
2001 January to March
Re-load of Edinburgh records
Because of a change of library computer system at Edinburgh University Library we are reloading their catalogue. All old Edinburgh records have been removed from COPAC and the new records are starting to appear as their catalogue is reloaded. (updated 28th March 2001)
MAU Helpdesk Survey March 2001
During March, queries made to the MIMAS helpdesks (including COPAC) are being monitored by the JISC's JISC Monitoring Unit (formally known as the JISC Monitoring and Advisory Unit (or MAU)). (28th February 2001)
Real-time data for Newcastle
Real-time circulation data is now available for documents
held by the University of Newcastle. This means that when you
view the Newcastle Holdings Display for a document you can see
how many copies there are, whether they are currently on-loan,
and if so, when they are due back. This circulation data is now
available for 10 libraries, and we hope more will be included
in the near future. (12th March 2001)
(More on local holdings in the
2000 news archive)
Real-time data for Sheffield
Real-time circulation data is now available for documents
held by the University of Sheffield. This means that when you
view the Sheffield Holdings Display for a document you can see
how many copies there are, whether they are currently on-loan,
and if so, when they are due back. This circulation data is now
available for 9 libraries, and we hope more will be included in
the near future. (30th January 2001)
(More on local holdings in the
2000 news archive)
Newcastle load complete
We have completed loading the University of Newcastle catalogue. There are now 20 catalogues accessible on COPAC. (11th January 2001)
Real-time data for Birmingham
Real-time circulation data is now available for documents
held by the University of Birmingham. This means that when you
view the Birmingham Holdings Display for a document you can see
how many copies there are, whether they are currently on-loan,
and if so, when they are due back. This circulation data is now
available for 8 libraries, and we hope more will be included in
the near future. (11th January 2001)
(More on local holdings in the
2000 news archive)
2000 news archive
2000 October to December
TCD reload complete and Newcastle load started.
The reload of the Trinity College Dublin catalogue was completed on the 15th Dec. Loading the catalogue of Newcastle University Library is underway and Newcastle records are now included in your search results. This brings to 20 the number of catalogues included on COPAC. (18th Dec 2000, updated 21st Dec 2000)
COPAC New Release with improved local holdings information
A new version of the COPAC interface has been released (on Monday 27th November 2000), with a number of enhancements to the way local library information is displayed. Up until now the local holdings information has been displayed at the end of the Full Record. This was fine whilst there were only a few libraries contributing records. However, as the number of contributing libraries has grown the local holdings details have expanded, making some records extremely long.
To get round this problem we have changed the way local holdings are displayed. In the Holdings section at the end of each Full Record you will now see a list of library names. Eg:
Holding Libraries: Cambridge ; Durham ; Edinburgh ; Glasgow* ; Imperial ; Leeds* ; Manchester ; Sheffield ; Southampton ; UCL ; ULL*
If you select the name of a library you will be given a Local Holdings display, providing details about the document held by a specific library. This change means we can provide a clearer display, both for the Full Record and the Local Holdings. It also allows us to introduce a new feature. Any library name marked with a * has a Local Holdings display which includes real-time document availability details. So we can now tell you exactly where the document is - if it is reference only, if it is on the shelf or on-loan, and if the latter we can usually tell you what date it is due back.
Eg. The example below shows a University of Glagow Library Local Holdings display screen. The book in question is held in the Main library, the classmark is supplied, and you can see that when the screenshot was taken this book was on-loan, with one outstanding reservation.
Glasgow holdings information
Conquest and union: fashioning a British state, 1485-1725 / edited by Steven G. Ellis and Sarah Barber.
| Current availability | ||
| Location | Classmark | Status |
| Level 8 Main Lib | History DJ30 CON | DUE 23-11-00 +1 HOLD |
This document availability information is using state-of-the
art technology and cannot be supported by all of our
contributing libraries at the moment. However, as libraries
upgrade their library systems we expect more libraries to be
able to supply this up-to-the-minute information in the
future.
(24th November 2000, updated 27th November 2000)
Trinity College Dublin catalogue reload
Owing to a change of library system at TCD we are reloading
their catalogue. The old TCD records have been removed from
COPAC and the new ones are appearing as the catalogue is
reloaded.
(2nd November 2000).
Update: As of 17th November approximately 1 million TCD records
have been loaded -- only another 900,000 to go.
2000 July to September
MAU Helpdesk Survey October 2000
During October, queries made to the MIMAS helpdesks (including COPAC) are being monitored by the JISC's Monitoring and Advisory Unit (MAU). In due course, a report on this survey will be available from the MAU website: http://www.mau.ac.uk. (29th September 2000).
Southampton University Catalogue Load Complete
We have completed loading the main catalogue of the University of Southampton Library. Periodicals are not yet available from Southampton, these will be added at a later date. (27th July 2000)
2000 April to June
Removal of Duplicate Records
Up until now the Oxford records included in COPAC have been held separately rather than being merged in with the records from the other libraries. This has resulted in a large number of duplicate records existing on the database.
We are now removing these duplicates by merging in the Oxford data. This will take some time, but over the forthcoming weeks you will see most of the duplicate records on COPAC disappearing and Oxford will appear alongside other libraries in the Holdings details section of the merged records. (26th April 2000)
News archive begun April 2000
