Copac

Consortium of Online Public Access Catalogues (COPAC)

Copac was funded by Jisc, to deliver a service to the UK community on the basis of an agreement with Research Libraries UK (RLUK)
Type of site	Union catalogue Bibliographic database
Available in	English
Owner	Jisc Research Libraries UK
URL	copac.jisc.ac.uk
Current status	Superseded by Library Hub Discover

Copac (originally an acronym of Consortium of Online Public Access Catalogues) was a union catalogue which provided free access to the merged online catalogues of many major research libraries and specialist libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland, plus the British Library, the National Library of Scotland and the National Library of Wales.^[1] It had over 40 million records^[2] from around 90 libraries as of 2019,^[3] representing a wide range of materials across all subject areas. Copac was freely available to all,^[2] and was widely used, with users mainly coming from Higher Education institutions in the United Kingdom, but also worldwide.^[4] Copac was valued by users as a research tool.^[4]

Copac was searchable through with a web browser or Z39.50 client. It was also accessible through OpenURL and Search/Retrieve via URL (SRU) interfaces.^[5] These interfaces could be used to provide links to items on Copac from external sites, such as those used on the Institute of Historical Research website.^[6]

Copac was a Jisc service provided for the UK community on the basis of an agreement with Research Libraries UK (RLUK).^[7] The service used records supplied by RLUK members, as well as an increasing range of specialist libraries with collections of national research interest. A full list of contributors is available^[8] including the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Middle Temple library and Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) Library.^[2][9]

In July 2019, Jisc replaced COPAC with Library Hub Discover.^[10][3][11]

See also

• OPAC
• SUNCAT
• Talis Group

References

1. Cousins, Shirley (1997). "COPAC: The New Nationally Accessible Union Catalogue". Ariadne (8). Archived from the original on May 5, 2021. Retrieved January 21, 2023.
2. (Jisc), Copac service. "About Copac". copac.ac.uk.
3. "Use Jisc Library Hub Discover to search all UK University and National Libraries at once". University of Aberdeen. July 28, 2019. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved January 21, 2023.
4. Anon (2014). "Copac User Survey" (PDF). blog.copac.ac.uk.
5. (Jisc), Copac service. "Copac for Developers". copac.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2015-06-08. Retrieved 2015-02-03.
6. "Saints in Exile – History On-line". www.history.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2018-03-27. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
7. (Jisc), Copac service. "Copac National, Academic and Specialist Library Catalogue". copac.ac.uk.
8. (Jisc), Copac service. "Libraries on Copac". copac.ac.uk.
9. Cousins, Shirley; Massam, Diana (2016). "Copac developments and the Copac Collection Management service". Interlending & Document Supply. 44 (1): 17–19. doi:10.1108/ILDS-11-2015-0036. ISSN 0264-1615.
10. "Jisc Library Hub Discover". discover.libraryhub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
11. Grindley, Neil (June 16, 2019). "Nearly time to say...'"goodbye Copac and SUNCAT!"". Jisc Library services. Archived from the original on December 7, 2021. Retrieved January 21, 2023.