Melvyl was the name of the online catalog of the University of California's library system. The Melvyl union catalog was produced by the California Digital Library — a unit within the department of Academic Planning, Programs, and Coordination at the UC Office of the President in downtown Oakland, California. Melvyl was named after Melvil Dewey, the library pioneer who invented the Dewey Decimal System. Melvyl was supported by the OCLC's WorldCat Local platform, which was retired in July 2021.

Overview

The Melvyl database contained over 30 million records from the: * ten University of California campuses, * two University of California library storage facilities, the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF) and the Northern Regional Library Facility (NRLF), * and the Center for Research Libraries. Melvyl is a registered trademark owned by the Regents of the University of California.

History

Melvyl began as a library automation system in 1977. Merging

MARC Marc or MARC may refer to: People * Marc (given name), people with the first name * Marc (surname), people with the family name Acronyms * MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging, * MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system ...

records from the UC campuses into a

union catalog A union catalog is a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of libraries. Union catalogs have been created in a range of media, including book format, microform, cards and more recently, networked electronic databases. Pri ...

was first done in a

microfiche A microform is a scaled-down reproduction of a document, typically either photographic film or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original d ...

format. Online access began in 1980 as a prototype for library staff. In 1981, library patrons were able to access an online electronic catalog of UC library books using a

computer terminal A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that can be used for entering data into, and transcribing data from, a computer or a computing system. Most early computers only had a front panel to input or display ...

. Since no network existed to connect the libraries of the nine campuses to the central site hosting the union catalog, options for a networking solution were analyzed, with

X.25 X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for Packet switched network, packet-switched data communication in wide area network, wide area networks (WAN). It was originally defined by the CCITT, International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Co ...

and

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...

being considered. By 1984, a TCP/IP network linking the campuses using satellite technology was operational. At the time, Melvyl ran on a

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...

, and the UC Division of Library Automation performed development work to implement

in order to provide

telnet Telnet (sometimes stylized TELNET) is a client-server application protocol that provides access to virtual terminals of remote systems on local area networks or the Internet. It is a protocol for bidirectional 8-bit communications. Its main ...

access. A

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...

version was also later developed. The mainframe system, retired in 2003, was replaced using commercial software from the

integrated library system An integrated library system (ILS), also known as a library management system (LMS), is an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed. An ILS is usually ...

vendor Ex Libris. The legacy

mode was retired in 2007. The Ex Libris version was retired in June 2011 and Melvyl was then provided by

OCLC OCLC, Inc. See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the ...

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

Local platform. In March 2021, the UC Libraries announced that Melvyl would be retired as the UC Libraries migrate to a unified library catalog and discovery system (based on Ex Libris' Alma/Primo VE). In July 2021 the Melvyl site and brand was retired and the new systemwide integrated library system / library management system was launched. The new discovery system is called UC Library Search (Primo VE instances for each UC campus) with a systemwide Alma backbone.

References

External links

Melvyl catalog

Information on Melvyl

University of California Libraries in California Library catalogues Library automation OCLC Mainframe computer software {{Library-stub