NUKAT is a union catalog which means that it contains descriptions of documents held by many Polish libraries (also those situated abroad, in Rome and Paris). NUKAT librarians do shared cataloging and download ready descriptions (bibliographic records) to their local catalogs which provides NUKAT end-users with one-stop access to information on the resources available in many reserach and university libraries. Plenty of benefits!
NUKAT was launched in 2002 as an initiative of several academic libraries and National Library of Poland financed with the grant from A.W.Mellon Foundation. Today NUKAT is built by more than 170 libraries and data it contains grow quickly - 1 million descriptions in 2008, more than 2 million in 2011 and 3 million in January 2015!
NUKAT offers access both to bibliographic and authority records. NUKAT Union Authority File built by NUKAT member libraries is a guarantee of correct and uniform headings used in NUKAT descriptions of documents. The file brings together all author's names and makes them accessible via one approved form and all variants used by the given person displayed as references to the approved form of the name. Subject description of documents in NUKAT records is made with three subject heading systems - KABA Subject Headings (used by academic libraries), National Library of Poland Subject Headings and Polish version of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).
What can you find in NUKAT database? Our catalog provides information on nearly complete set of titles published in Poland since 2002 when the union catalog was launched. Libraries also add records for documents published earlier. In the years 2009-2013 the project "NUKAT - Digital Information Highway" implemented with the European Union support enabled us to upload 300 000 local records for documents published before 2002 into NUKAT database.
NUKAT holds descriptions of books, journals, sound recordings, printed music, movies, maps, iconographic documents, ephemera and early imprints. What are you looking for?
NUKAT database is supervised by NUKAT Center of the University of Warsaw Library - the Library also is a place where NUKAT server is situated. We offer help and advice to more than 1700 catalogers who build our union catalog every day and all end-users who search for literature to work, learn and have fun. You are welcome to contact us!