New concepts on the Hungarian National Shared Catalogue

Abstract

The final article in the series “New developments…” describes the concept of the „UTCA” project for modernising shared cataloguing in Hungary, and extending its functions in a user-oriented manner. The occasion for summarising this concept was the upcoming tender to be invited in relation to the national shared cataloguing system (MOKKA) and the national system of document supply (ODR), for which the developers of the „UTCA” project wish to apply as a consortium. The remarkable features of the concept include open source components as the system’s building blocks, grouping at the level of works in addition to document-based duplicate checking, and use of a hybrid model (with functions taken over from the virtual model based on the physical shared catalogue), an opportunity to enhance records taken over and quickly transferred from booksellers’ databases, and involving the country’s 10 thousand librarians in a web 2.0-style co-operation to improve the union catalogue. The project recommends to create a unified web design for libraries, by integrating personalised web 2.0 services (such as virtual shelves, favourite libraries and social functions) with the union catalogue. The authors discuss issues of data sharing, licensing, search engine optimisation and statistics, and make suggestions for creating equal opportunities at the tender process in order to promote initiatives for innovation.