El Catálogo Nacional de Ciencias de la Salud: Experiencias y desafíos de una herramienta colaborativa

In 2012, Carlos III Health Institute, by means of the National Library of Health Sciences and in partnership with the Virtual Health Libraries of the Autonomous Communities, promoted with a public and open nature the National Union Catalogue for Publications on Health Sciences. It can be accessed freely and universally through its webpage and connects with the main ILL systems. This communication addresses the evolution and improvement of the Catalogue from its creation until the present time, its performance in Beta version and final implementation, as well as upcoming developments. In 2014, the first developments of the Catalogue were reported in the 15th National Conference on Information and Documentation in Health Sciences (http://jornadasbibliosalud.isciii.es/posteres/). From that moment on, the bibliographical information from journals and collections of the participating libraries have been steadily incorporated. In 2017, once a new improved version of the application was developed, a beta version of the Catalogue was launched and most of the collections initially uploaded were updated. In 2018, a resolution on the operation and coordination of the Catalogue was published in order to make official ISCIII’s support to this tool, it was officially launched in November of that year, the first meeting of its Technical Committee took place and it began its intensive use. Since the last report was issued in 2014, 9.287 journals and 193.093 collections corresponding to 266 libraries from every Autonomous Community have been added. The number of participating centers has also increased by 54. Moreover, a webpage and a blog have been implemented, the participating libraries receive technical and documental support suited to their needs, a connection with the GTBIB and ILL17 applications has been established, 142 new membership applications have been signed and access statistics have been elaborated. The possibility of a new version of the application, featuring technical improvements, is been evaluated as a future development. CNCS emerges as a collaborative tool of a public nature. Today, we are facing challenges that, when successfully addressed, will lead to improvements that will allow the Catalogue to consolidate and become a constantly evolving living resource, just like the 17 realities that compose it.