JISC

A new JISC project is developing an RSS news feed service that will automatically feed publisher and e-journal information into library catalogues. Led by the publisher Emerald, and supported by library supplier Talis, the project will finish in July 2006. The University of Derby is working as the test bed and evaluation partner.

The open source software developed by the TOCRoSS project will be freely available to further and higher education establishments, publishers, and library management systems developers. With TOCRoSS in place, e-journal table of content data will be fed automatically into library catalogues without the need for cataloguing, classification or data entry. This will improve the accuracy of records, save time for library staff and deliver a more integrated service to library users. It will be of particular value to academic libraries, where students often choose search engines such as Google over the library catalogue for tracking down articles and information.

TOCRoSS will also deliver benefits to the publishing community, improvements in the dissemination of data and information to libraries and will lead to a corresponding improvement in the value and management of e-journals and other resources. 

Paul Evans, head of web services at Emerald Group Publishing, explains the value that the project will bring to both library staff and users:

“Cataloguing journals and articles has, up until now, been considered a ‘luxury’ in resource terms by many academic institutions. Once TOCRoSS is complete, cataloguing journal articles becomes automatic and the commonly asked question, 'Why can’t I find any articles on the OPAC?' becomes obsolete.”

When the project is complete, the TOCRoSS software will be available with an Open Source license, making it possible for publishers and library management system suppliers to use it freely with their products and services.

A demonstrator service is a key deliverable of the project and is expected to be up and running by June 2006.

For further details please go to:  TOCRoSS project