About SCONE

What is SCONE?

SCONE is the Scottish Collections Network.

It provides descriptions of collections held in Scottish libraries, museums and archives, and collections about Scottish topics held elsewhere. These descriptions can be searched by collection name and location, and by the names of associated persons and organizations including collectors, collection owners and administrators, and the subjects covered by the collections.

Where available, links to digital collections or online finding aids such as catalogues can be used to discover further information about the collections and their contents.

What kinds of collections?

SCONE contains information about collections of all kinds.

It is particularly strong in coverage of bibliographic collections of:

• books and journals.
• audiovisual materials, photographs, maps, plans, drawings, video and sound recordings.
• local and family history resources.
• manuscripts and archives.
• online digital resources and websites.

All subjects are represented:

• special collections covering specific topics, people and places associated with Scotland.
• special collections covering other topics of interest to Scottish individuals and groups.
• general collections covering a very wide range of topics.

Collections are owned and administered by a wide range of institutions and organizations located in Scotland:

• every educational library service in all colleges, schools, and universities.
• every learned society library.
• every public library in all local authorities.
• family and local history societies and libraries.
• special and rare books departments.
• significant commercial and industrial library and information services.
• art galleries and museums.
• archives.

How many collections are recorded?

SCONE statistics give totals for the different types of collection in SCONE.

Where does the information come from?

Much of the information in SCONE is supplied by the institutions and organizations which administer the collections.

Information about locations and organizations is updated annually by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) during the production of Scottish library and information resources.

Specific details about collections are derived from a number of sources:

• Exploring Scottish history: with a directory of resource centres for Scottish local and national history in Scotland / edited by Michael Cox. - 2nd ed. - [Hamilton] : Scottish Library Association; Scottish Local History Forum; Scottish Records Association, 1999.
  SCONE indicates these collections by including the code ESH in the title.
• Directory of official publications in Scotland.
  This was digitised, updated, and published on behalf of the Scottish Working Group on Official Publications (SWOP) during the SCONE project.
  SCONE indicates these collections by including the code SWOP in the title.
• Projects involving members of the Confederation of Scottish Mini Co-operatives (CoSMiC).
  Members making significant contributions to SCONE include the National Library of Scotland, Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries (SCURL), Scottish Museums Council (SMC), and SLIC.

All other information in SCONE is supplied for service purposes.

For more information about SCONE collection descriptions and how they are constructed, see:

• Guide to the SCONE database
• SCONE data dictionary
• Collection-level descriptions in the Scottish Collections Network (SCONE): a guide and manual for maintaining the database (PDF document)

Who uses SCONE?

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

• East of Scotland Museums Partnership (ESMP). SCONE provides a landscape of the collections of the members.
• Glasgow Academic Libraries Together (GALT). SCONE provides a landscape of the collections of the members.
• National Burns Collection. Collections associated with Robert Burns are automatically retrieved from SCONE.
• Scotland's Culture. Collections on various topics associated with Scottish culture are automatically retrieved from SCONE.
• Scottish Health Information Network (SHINE) Union List. SCONE provides information about the collections of selected members.
• Scottish Visual Arts Group (SVAG). SCONE provides a landscape of the collections of the members.

Who develops and maintains SCONE?

SCONE is developed and maintained by the Scottish Library and Information Council.

SCONE is based on work carried out by the SCONE (Scottish Collections Network Extension) project, funded by the Research Support Libraries Programme. SCONE has been developed subsequently as part of number of 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.

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

• Co-operative Information Retrieval Network for Scotland (CAIRNS).
• Research Collections Online (RCO).
• Scotland's Culture: the Scottish cultural portal.
• Scotland's Information.
• Scottish Distributed Digital Library (SDDL).
• Scottish Library and Information Resources (SLIR Online).

Further information about SCONE and its development can be found in these resources:

• Enhancing information services using machine to machine terminology services. 2009. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• 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))
• Collection landscaping and institutional repositories in Scotland. 2006.
• Conspectus and the Scottish Collections Network: landscaping the Scottish common information environment. 2006. (PDF document)
• DDC and collection-level description. 2006 (MS PowerPoint Show)
• Harvesting institutional resources in Scotland testbed project: final report. 2005. (PDF document)
• Making sense of the hybrid super union catalogue in the information environment - some outcomes of the COPAC/Clumps continuing interoperability project. 2005 (MS PowerPoint Show)
• Elements and future development requirements of a common information environment for Scotland: Final report to the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) on the SPEIR project. 2004 (PDF document)
• Making sense of hybrid union catalogues: collection landscaping in complex information environments. 2004. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• 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)
• Output formats for collection-level descriptions from the SCONE database. 2004. (PDF document)
• SPEIR workshops: a seminar and workshop raising awareness of developments connected with the SPEIR project. 2004. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• Development of a relational database schema for collection-level descriptions in SCONE for archives, libraries, and museums. 2003. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• Collection-Level Description : presentation to CIS students, 31 Mar 2003. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• Use of DDC in HILT 2 and beyond : Presented to the Dewey Decimal Classification seminar, British Library, Boston Spa, 26 March 2003. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• CAIRNS and SCONE: shaping the Scottish information environment : presented at the CoFHE Conference, 14-17 April 2003, Heriot-Watt University. (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. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• From model to service: relational databases and SCONE : presentation to CDLR staff on Wed 5 Feb 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. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• Extending the SCONE Collection Descriptions Database for CC-interop: Report for Work Package B of the CC-interop JISC Project. 2002. (PDF document)
• Extending the Scottish Collections Network: final report of the SCONE RSLP project. 2002. (PDF document)
• Alternatives to Conspectus: report and recommendations to SCURL: overview of activity, conclusions, recommendations: final report of the SCONE RSLP project, annexe A.1. 2002. (PDF document)
• Evaluation of the current approach to collaborative collection management in SCURL libraries and alternatives to Conspectus: report and recommendations on collection strength measurement methodologies for use in SCURL libraries: final report of the SCONE RSLP project, annexe A.2. 2002. (PDF document)
• Technical and functional description of the SCONE demonstrator service: final report of the SCONE RSLP project, annexe B.1. 2002. (PDF document)
• Technical and functional description of the Scottish Collections Access Management Portal (SCAMP) demonstrator service: final report of the SCONE RSLP project, annexe B.2. 2002. (PDF document)
• SCONE: reusability, granularity and collection strength : presented at the Collection Description Focus, Workshop 2, Birmingham, 8 Feb 2002. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• From functional granularity to people interoperability : applied collection description in the SCONE project. (MS PowerPoint Show)
• SCONE, HILT, collection strength and standards. (MS PowerPoint Show)

Warning

SCONE 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 notice.