Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A.--The Finnish Ministry of Education, specifically the Automation Unit of Finnish Research Libraries, has contracted with VTLS Inc. to create a national, online union catalog containing holdings of all the Finnish academic and some other research libraries. The union database is part of the automation plan known as LINNEA (Library Information Network for Academic Libraries), consisting of 22 libraries throughout Finland that use the VTLS integrated, online library system software.
The national union catalog, called LINDA, will reside on a dedicated Hewlett- Packard 3000/992/100DX computer. The machine is located at the Computer Center of Helsinki University and is hooked up to FUNET, a data communications network already linking the local area networks of Finnish universities. The "Emerald," as the machine is known, is configured for 400 simultaneous users.
The Finnish project is taking piace in two phases. In the first phase, which began in November, VTLS extracted the bibliographic and authority records from nine of LINNEA's libraries. The records are scheduled to be loaded into the union database in February.
LINDA will store approximately 1.8 million records in the initial phase, growing by 250,000 records per year. Plans will soon be made for loading other databases onto the union service computer where LINDA resides. These databases will be used for information retrieval or copy cataloging.
The records, which are stored in FINMARC format, consist of data from a variety of materials such as monographs, periodicals and maps. Other types of materials will be added later. All the data will use the same consolidated FINMARC format.
VTLS has tailored its standard load programs to handle the unique requirements of the project. During the load process, customized programs will read and check records for duplicates, merge certain bibliographic tags of duplicates, and determine which record to keep based on encoding and institutional levels. Later, for the second phase of the project, VTLS programs will let the Finnish National Bibliography database (FENNICA), which is also a VTLS database, distribute newly cataloged records to the union database and to selected libraries.
Librarians, students and university staff will have access to the national union catalog. In the future, other libraries and information centers in Finland will also be allowed to access the union catalog database. The catalog is, among other things, expected to increase the effectiveness of research, improve the access researchers have to materials, enhance information awareness and resource sharing, and to act as a bibliographic and authority data resource.
According to Antti Soini, director of the Automation Unit of Finnish Research Libraries, "The completion of LINDA, the national union catalog, brings the five-year LINNEA project to a close. With LINDA, the full power of an integrated network using the integrated VTLS software can be achieved. Now we have a very good platform from which to introduce new services and plan future development projects in partnership with VTLS."
VTLS President Vinod Chachra said, 'We are pleased Finland was the first to use our specialized software for creating regional and national union databases. The Virginia State Library and Archives has also signed up for the same. Ultimately, library patrons will be the beneficiaries of this project."