What is Union Catalogue?

A union catalog is a combined library catalog

describing the collections of a number of libraries.
Union catalogs have been created in a range of media,
including book format, microform, cards and more
recently, networked electronic databases.
How Union Catalogue is Arranged?
Print union catalogs are typically arranged by title,
author or subject (often employing a controlled
vocabulary); electronic versions typically support
keyword and Boolean queries.
Union Catalogue: a short history
• The largest print union catalog ever published is the
American National Union Catalog Pre-1956 Imprints
(NUC), completed in 1981. This achievement has since
been superseded by the creation of union catalogs in
the form of giant electronic databases, of which the
largest is OCLC's WorldCat. Another example is
Copac provided by Research Libraries UK. A third
example is Amicus, provided by Library and Archives
Canada.
Division of Union Catalogue
We may recognize local, regional and national union
catalogue. Further division may be done on the basis
of the kinds of material include i.e. book, periodical,
film, etc.
Advantages
Union catalogue serves as a locating tool for the
document.
ii) It helps in identifying a given document for which
bibliographic information is provided.
iii) It helps in interlibrary loan.
Advantages (Cont…)
iv) It helps in selection of documents.
v) It helps to achieve coordination in the acquisition
and selection programme of a group of libraries. It
helps to avoid unnecessary duplication of material
like periodicals, etc.
vi) It serve as a list of total document resource of
libraries in a given geographical region.
Disadvantage
Maintainability
It also would require collaboration in terms of
cataloguing and indexing policies, team work,
infrastructure etc.
Disadvantage (Cont…)
Maintaining large union catalogue unnecessary