Clumps and collection description in the information environment in the UK with particular reference to Scotland

The role, potential and interaction of networked catalogues and collection-level description have recently been given emphasis in order that efficient resource discovery mechanisms, and the effective organisation of such resources, be facilitated within the UK's developing JISC information environment (IE). This article describes the work of CC-interop, a JISC project, and related projects that inform the development of the IE and its ability to instantiate the functional model of online resource discovery to which JISC aspires. The article reviews the evolution of Z39.50 virtual union catalogue services and collection description services that preceded CC-interop. The paper also discusses how such work is informing regional information environments, with particular reference to Scotland, and reveals how such local arrangements will benefit the wider JISC IE.