MARKHAM (May 11, 2000). The virtual Canadian union catalogue (vCuc), launched for preview at the Manitoba Library Association Conference, offers an Internet-based single point of access to a wealth of distributed catalogues of Canadian archived information (http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/vcuc-cccv/). Web users can perform bilingual searches of the catalogues of selected academic, public, government and special libraries, either individually or simultaneously. Initial offerings to the public will include access to a growing set of databases that represent the holdings of more than 90 libraries nation wide and new databases will be added as they become available.

Considered an integral part of Geac's (www.library.geac.com) library automation solutions, GeoWeb is used via a standard Internet browser on a workstation and provides a gateway to any z39.50 compliant database around the world. Expanding on the power of OCLC's WebZ technology, GeoWeb brings to the end-user an easy to use, multilingual web-based public access catalogue and search engine. It facilitates access to a wide variety of customer functions, easily integrating multimedia files and electronic resources. Providing search results by e-mail, GeoWeb allows end users to obtain faster and more reliable result summaries.

Carrol Lunau, Resource Sharing Officer at the National Library of Canada (NLC), indicates that feedback has been very positive towards the project, "Comments from beta testers during previews of the vCuc have been very favourable. Users are very excited and enthusiastic about the ability to search multiple library catalogues easily and simultaneously...and Geac staff were very helpful and responsive to our project requirements."

Established by Parliament in 1953, the NLC is a federal institution whose mandate is to acquire, preserve and promote the published heritage of Canada. It serves as one of the nation's pre-eminent centres for researching Canadian Studies and showcasing Canadian literature and music. The NLC is responsible for maintaining AMICUS, a centralised union catalogue database that contains the holdings of over 500 Canadian libraries.

The business relationship with Geac was formed through the NLC's mandate to assess the feasibility of a distributed virtual catalogue application that would supplement existing networks and union catalogues and supply a one-stop-shopping approach to consultative access that goes beyond the walls of a public library.

Phil Smith, Geac Library Division's Marketing Communications Manager managed the Geac implementation of the vCuc and regards the success of the vCuc project as, "not only a tribute to the staff of the NLC and Geac, but also a fundamental milestone for NLC customers and information seekers globally. Facilitating real time access to the extensive wealth of classified information that exists between disparate systems across Canada, the NLC has empowered information seekers to find information much more efficiently, regardless of media." Further he states, "We are very proud that Geac's GeoWeb solution helps the NLC fulfil their mandate of improved and expanded services to their customers".

For more information on this project, contact the NLC's Carrol Lunau, Resource Sharing Officer at (613) 996-3262 or Donna Dinberg, Systems Librarian at (613) 995-9227. Geac Libraries Division provides integrated client-server solutions to a diverse range of libraries including public, academic, national and special libraries world-wide. Contact Geac at info@geac.com for details of Geac's library products.