Kentucky Union List of Serials (KULS)

About KULS:

One of the most important elements in resource sharing efforts is accurate and complete holdings information about magazines and research journals. For over thirty years, the Kentucky Union List of Serials, or KULS, has collected and shared detailed information about Kentucky libraries' holdings of publications in any medium or format issued in successive parts.

In 1971 the Kentucky Union List of Serials was founded as a cooperative venture between the Information Referral Center of the University of Louisville and the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Until 1992 the list was maintained on a local database program in order to produce microfiche catalogs for interlibrary loan applications. For many years, KDLA provided a subgrant to the University of Louisville to maintain KULS.

Between 1992 and 1998 the KULS database was moved to the Online Computer Library Center's (OCLC's) Union Listing Module. With the completion of that project the union listing records of participating Kentucky libraries could be accessed through OCLC cataloging and were available through interlibrary loan.

In October 2008, KULS responsibilities returned to KDLA in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Benefits for Kentucky Libraries—

• KDLA pays all costs associated with union listing. Subsequently, there are no participation or maintenance fees charged to participating libraries. The only requirement is that the library periodically provides the necessary information to update the library's holdings on OCLC to KULS at KDLA.
• For interlibrary loan, KULS work provides information about which libraries in Kentucky hold the titles and volumes your library's users need.
• No matter how small your library's collection, do not underestimate it. Your library may hold serials titles that are unique in Kentucky. Local journals, newsletters, and periodicals are often found only in local libraries. You may be the only library in the area that is able to provide what some ILL client is desperate to find.

Reporting Options:

KULS staff at KDLA can receive updated holdings information in several ways. If the methods described below will not work for your library, please contact us for additional consultation.

Email:

Most participating libraries send their updates to the KULS office by attaching a Word document containing this information to an email message to KULS@ky.gov.

Printouts from local systems:

Some libraries acquire and mail printouts from their system administrators. These are acceptable as long as they contain all the required bibliographic information, and list only those titles that have had holdings changes since the last update. This method is often used by libraries that are adding their holdings to KULS for the first time.

Direct in-house updating in OCLC:

Several libraries in the state have started to process their own union listing records. This can be done by using the browser version of OCLC's Connexion. Separate union listing logon codes are no longer used. Union listing is now done under cataloging authorizations. Online tutorials can be accessed at:

OCLC Local Holdings Maintenance Tutorials
( http://www.oclc.org/support/training/localholdings/tutorial/default.htm)

Information about batch updating can be accessed at:

Batch Processing of Local Data Holdings
( http://www.oclc.org/batchprocessing/options/holdings/localdatarecords/default.htm)