===================== HES POSTING ==================== 
 
Introducing COPAC 
 
 COPAC is a new internationally accessible catalogue at 
http://copac.ac.uk/copac/. 
 
Based at the University of Manchester, COPAC provides unified access to the 
consolidated online catalogues of some of the largest university research 
libraries in the UK and Ireland. COPAC is normally available 24 hours a day 
365 days a year and access is *free of charge*.  The COPAC database 
currently contains approx. 5 million  records. These represent the merged 
online library catalogues of: 
 
  - Cambridge University 
  - Edinburgh University 
  - Glasgow University 
  - Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine 
  - Leeds University 
  - University of Manchester 
  - University of Nottingham 
  - Oxford University 
  - Trinity College Dublin 
  - University College London 
  - University of London Library 
 
The records from a further twelve university library catalogues will be 
added in due course. Materials from other libraries may be added in the 
future. 
 
As well as providing general coverage of a very wide range of subject 
areas, these large research libraries have many older documents, specialist 
collections and particular strengths, such as foreign language materials, 
which make COPAC a very valuable resource for the researcher. Records for 
materials published pre-1900 make up c.4% of the database and the 
proportion of older materials is growing. Some 27% of the records represent 
foreign language materials, including minority languages such as Welsh. 
Again, this is increasing as more foreign language collections are brought 
online. 
 
Most COPAC records are for books, reports etc. but there are increasing 
numbers for other materials such as printed and recorded music, and video. 
Records for periodicals make up some 4% of the COPAC database. 
 
Access to COPAC is at http://copac.ac.uk/copac/ 
 
Online search assistance is provided and printed User Guides are available 
for both interfaces. Postscript and .pdf versions of the User Guides are 
available for downloading at: 
    http://copac.ac.uk/copac/userguide/ 
 
============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ 
For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]