Bibliographic Management | Factfile

Databases

It can be difficult to identify and locate accessible materials, because many such items are produced by small, charitable bodies, or in the case of public libraries can only carry a small section of stock. It is first necessary to identify the possible sources of materials and then check their catalogues to find which, if any, has the item required. And the catalogues themselves need to be in accessible format form, or the user has to ask someone else to make the search for them. Web-based union catalogues enable end users to make independent searches to find required materials.

Revealweb

http://www.revealweb.org.uk/

Revealweb provides a gateway to accessible format materials produced and held in the UK. It has two components: a union catalogue and a suppliers register. The union catalogue contains details of accessible format materials held in a variety of organisations in the UK. Catalogue records contain full details of the formats available and in most cases include a summary of the content. Fiction is indexed by genre and non-fiction by subject. Records for educational materials include information on national curriculum level. The suppliers register uses a collection description schema to provide details about the various producers of accessible format materials: charitable organisations, specialist publishers, transcription agencies and educational units.

UKOLN worked on the Revealweb project from 1999 to 2004, and continues to provide support in bibliographic management.

Outside the UK

Canadian National Institute for the Blind
http://www.cnib.ca/

National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (USA)
http://www.loc.gov/nls/

Louis Database (USA)
http://www.aph.org/louis.htm