About CAIRNS

CAIRNS is the Co-operAtive Information Retrieval Network for Scotland.

CAIRNS allows the simultaneous one-stop searching of the catalogues of multiple library collections of print and electronic resources held by Scottish libraries and information services for learning, teaching and research.

Searches can be made for the authors, titles, subjects, and standard publisher numbers of items in each collection.

What kinds of catalogues?

The service was originally based on the catalogues of libraries which are members of SCURL, the Scottish Consortium of University and Research Libraries, together with some catalogues of electronic resources. CAIRNS now includes several non-SCURL catalogues, including those of several public libraries.

Where does the information come from?

The information displayed in CAIRNS is taken directly from the catalogues being searched, and is supplied by the institutions and organizations which administer the collections.

All other information in CAIRNS is supplied for service purposes.

Who uses CAIRNS?

CAIRNS interacts with several networked information services for Scotland, including:

• Scottish Collections Network (SCONE).
• Research Collections Online (RCO).
• Scotland's Culture: the Scottish cultural portal.
• Scottish Library and Information Resources (SLIR Online).

CAIRNS is used by several information organizations in Scotland, including:

• Glasgow Academic Libraries Together. CAIRNS provides access to the catalogues of selected members.
• National Burns Collection. Items associated with Robert Burns are automatically retrieved from selected CAIRNS catalogues.
• Scottish Bibliographies Online (SBO). CAIRNS provides a miniclump of catalogues of Scottish publications.
• Scottish Health Information Network (SHINE) Union List. CAIRNS provides access to the catalogues of selected members.
• Scottish Visual Arts Group (SVAG). The Union Catalogue of Art Books in Libraries in Scotland (UCABLIS) is a miniclump of the catalogues of the members.

CAIRNS is given as an example in the key prompt "Participation in national or local initiatives, organizations and professional activities which encourage resource sharing", of the quality indicator "Staff have an appropriate awareness and involvement in resource sharing initiatives" of Element 1: Learning resource organization in Resources & services supporting learning: a service development quality toolkit (PDF document).

Who develops and maintains CAIRNS?

CAIRNS is developed and maintained by the Centre for Digital Library Research at Strathclyde University in Glasgow.

CAIRNS is based on work carried out by the CAIRNS (Co-operative Academic Information Retrieval Network for Scotland) project, funded by the Electronic Libraries (eLib) Programme. CAIRNS has subsequently been developed as part of other projects:

• CC-interop (COPAC/Clumps Interoperability), funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).
• HILT II (High Level Thesaurus, phase 2), funded by JISC.
• SPEIR (Scottish Portals for Education, Information and Research), funded by SLIC.
• HaIRST (Harvesting Institutional Resources in Scotland Testbed), funded by JISC.

Further information about CAIRNS and its development can be found in the publications:

• Landscaping the future for collaborative collection management. 2007. (PDF document) (Also available in French as: Paysages futurs de la gestion collaborative des collections. (PDF document))
• Harvesting institutional resources in Scotland testbed project: final report. 2005. (PDF document)
• CAIRNS goes public. 2005. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• Making sense of hybrid union catalogues: collection landscaping in complex information environments. 2004. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• COPAC/Clumps continuing technical cooperation project. Final report. 2004. (PDF document)
• Collection landscaping in the common information environment: a case study using the Scottish Collections Network (SCONE). 2004. (PDF document)
• User behaviour in the searching of union catalogues: an investigation for Work Package C of CC-interop. 2004. (PDF document)
• Improving interoperability in distributed and physical union catalogues through co-ordination of cataloguing and indexing policies. 2004. (PDF document)
• SPEIR workshops. 2004 (MS PowerPoint Show)
• HILT: High-Level Thesaurus project phase II. Main report. 2004. (PDF document)
• Use of DDC in HILT 2 and beyond : Presented to the Dewey Decimal Classification seminar, British Library, Boston Spa, 26 March 2003. 2003. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• CAIRNS and SCONE: shaping the Scottish information environment : presented at the CoFHE Conference, 14-17 April 2003, Heriot-Watt University. 2003. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• CC-interop and SCONE: extending collection-level description : presented to Mapping the information landscape: a showcase of collection description projects and services, British Library, London, 25 March 2003. 2003. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• Scottish distributed information infrastructure research: Scottish cultural portal pilot and public libraries integration initiatives. (PDF document)
• Bridging digital collections : a presentation to CILIPS Branch/Group Day, 22 May 2002. 2002. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• CC-interop Project Plan - Issue 1. 2002. (PDF document)
• CAIRNS final report. 2002. (PDF document)
• SCONE, HILT, collection strength and standards. (MS PowerPoint Show)

Warning

CAIRNS continues to be developed as part of a number of projects and initiatives. As a result, the service may become unavailable from time to time, without prior notification. Such interruptions will be kept to a minimum. The design, layout and functionality of the service may also change without warning.