The Czech Union Catalogue collects records of documents in the collections of Czech libraries and institutions.
Libraries contribute to the Czech Union Catalogue (SKC) with their cataloguing records or provide information on periodical subscriptions. The SKC has been built in electronic form since 1995 and contains almost 8.5 million records of Czech and foreign monographs, special documents, and periodicals. The catalogue is regularly updated. In the retrieved records, the user will find information about the availability of the document or about the library or libraries in which the searched document can be borrowed. Information about the library (owner of the document) is expressed by a sigil (a code identifying a specific institution/code designation of the institution) and the abbreviated name of the library. By clicking on the sigil, the user gets information about the owner of the document, which is collected for this purpose in the ADR database (Directory of Libraries and Institutions of the Czech Republic). From the retrieved records, it is possible to link directly to the local catalogues of libraries (owners of documents) and obtain up-to-date information about the current availability of a document in a particular library.
The link is activated by the "local record" button. In addition to the sigil and the library abbreviation, records for periodicals also contain information on the volumes subscribed to and the preservation period. Full text is available for some periodical titles. By clicking the "show on map" button, the user will get information about where the libraries (owners of the document) are located in the Czech Republic.
The "citation" button allows you to create a citation of the found work.
From the SKC, it is possible to send requests for interlibrary loan services (the "MVS" menu item) or to request the allocation of a CNB number.
The records in the database are enhanced with book covers and document contents, which are taken into the records in the SKC from the book cover server: http://www.obalkyknih.cz/.
The SKC is the source for the *List of Out of Commerce Works*.
Information about the creation of the Czech Collections Catalogue is available at the CASLIN Information Portal - Czech Union Catalogue.