The Union Catalog lies at the heart of all resource sharing services for public libraries in Suffolk County. Listed in the Union Catalog database is
bibliographic information for all materials held by Suffolk County public libraries. Library staff and library patrons make hundreds of inquiries on a daily basis in order to find
out what materials are owned by what libraries in the County. The Union Catalog
database has over 1, 334,102 titles and 6, 992,138 holdings. Using OCLC, the
largest bibliographic database in the world, some 8,000 new records are added
to the Union Catalog each month. The Union Catalog Department updates holding
and title information on a daily basis. The Union Catalog is available online
through SuffolkWeb, member library homepages and the PALS network.
All new records added to the Union Catalog database are subject to rigorous authority control. This means that all
new name and subject headings are reviewed and made to conform to the Library
of Congress cataloging policies and practices. The Union Catalog Department
uses weekly and quarterly publications to bring the entire database into
conformity with current Library of Congress practices. Conforming to these
national standards ensures member libraries a database of MARC records with
integrity and internal consistency. Approximately 8,000 name and subject
headings are verified each month.
The Partnership of Automated Libraries in Suffolk (PALS) is an integrated library automation consortium of 42 member libraries and the
Suffolk Cooperative Library System. SCLS administers the operations of the
consortium under the direction of the PALS Executive Board. The consortium pays
SCLS an administrative fee and reimburses the System for operational expenses.
PALS utilizes Innovative Interfaces, Inc. as its automation vendor.
