Towards a new UniCat union catalogue: ULiège's perceptions

This report presents insights from the UniCat Workshop and the ULiege Survey conducted to assess perceptions and expectations regarding the evolution of the UniCat union catalogue. The workshop gathered ULiège librarians to discuss various aspects of UniCat, including content, metadata quality, user interface, and potential new services. Key points included the need for more electronic resources, better metadata quality for copy-cataloguing, enhanced deduplication, more integration with ULiège's catalogue and a streamlined user interface with improved filtering capabilities.
A survey conducted among students, faculty, and staff at ULiège received 280 responses, revealing that 53% of respondents were familiar with UniCat. A significant 97.97% of participants supported the continuation of the project, emphasizing the importance of integrating open access content from Belgian repositories and expanding the range of digital resources available. The survey also highlighted the demand for new features, such as the direct display of document availability and the integration of UniCat data into the ULiège library catalogue, notably to facilitate interlibrary loans.
These findings underline the ongoing relevance of UniCat and provide valuable directions for its future development, ensuring it remains a central tool in Belgium's academic and library landscape.