IAU library joins French universities interlibrary loans network

The IAU library and information centre has joined the French higher education bibliographic agency, ABES, interlibrary loans network.
IAU resources can now be borrowed by ABES member libraries via the collective electronic catalogue of France’s higher education libraries, SUDOC. Specialising in journals and periodicals, SUDOC holds over 10 million bibliographic records, and plays a leading role in the French higher education and research information systems.
ABES was created in 1994 to implement Sudoc (Système Universitaire de Documentation or University Documentation System), the union catalogue of France’s higher education libraries. Sudoc opened in 2001 and has proved a resounding success. It covers the collections of 1 419 “deployed” or memberlibraries along with the 1,793 public or private libraries from the Sudoc-PS network which specialises in referencing serial publications. With over 10 million bibliographic records, 32 million localised documents and 24 million public queries in 2010, it plays a leading role in the French higher education and research information system.