n. (also union catalogue)a register of archival and/or library resources that compiles descriptions of resources from multiple institutionsLand 1954, 195Enthusiasm for a national register of manuscripts has itself had a respectable history. Such a register or union catalog has been described as just the handmaiden to answer one of Clio’s most pressing “long-felt needs.”Nelson 1970b, 455The Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church, Box 488, Lake Junaluska, N.C., has received approximately 250,000 items of correspondence of Freedman’s Aid Mission, Methodist Episcopal Church, 1888 to 1939. In progress at the present time at the archives is a 2-volume edition of “Encyclopedia of World Methodism” as well as a Union Catalogue of Methodist Books.Carson 1991, 184Using Minaret software (a stand-alone USMARC AMC cataloging system) in combination with WordPerfect word-processing software, the project staff developed procedures that allowed it to generate textual and index entries for the printed guide to the collection as well as upload USMARC AMC records directly to the OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) union catalog.Pitti 1997, 272Over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, the OCLC and RLG databases, by aggregating millions of machine-readable catalog records, emerged as de facto union catalogs to not only the nation’s bibliographic holdings, but to a good share of the world’s as well. Scholars, educators, and the general public, using networked computers in offices, homes, and libraries, could discover what published materials existed and where copies could be found.Prom 2003, 201Archivists had one overriding goal in developing these standards: furthering intellectual access to geographically dispersed collections. This goal was a natural outgrowth of early movements to develop union catalogs for archival resources, such as the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, and to bring order in an era of large projects for special subject surveys.Sweetser and Orchard 2019, 375 Nimer and Daines note that ArchiveGrid, OCLC’s international union catalog for archival material, is populated using both EAD and MARC records.AAT 2021Union catalogs: Catalogs that unite collections of all the libraries or other collections in a geographical area, group, or library system, presented in alphabetical sequence.
