YOUR NEW UNICAT CONTACT
Sarah Armitage, Director of Library Sales at BDS, is to become the new point of contact for enquiries relating to UniCat. Sarah will take on her new role from the 2nd of January 2026.
With the retirement of Heather Sherman, BDS’s Director of Academic Library Operations, at the end of 2025, UniCat enters a new phase of expansion and development.
“Heather did a remarkable job establishing UniCat in the academic library marketplace,” says Lesley Whyte, Managing Director at BDS. “She worked with libraries to establish efficient metadata ingestion into diverse library management systems and workflows. She did this with great success, so much so that UniCat can be used by any academic library in the UK and Ireland.”
UniCat is the specialised metadata provision service for academic libraries. Catalogue records cover English language books, e-books and open access material. As a standalone service, it is vendor-neutral. This means that no matter what library management systems are in place, UniCat works seamlessly with library workflows.
It is already in use by many major universities. These include Imperial College London, University of the Arts, Liverpool University, the University of Sheffield and Northumberland University. The libraries of institutions such as The House of Lords and UKHSA also use the service.
“UniCat achieved significant market penetration under the leadership of Heather,” says Sarah Armitage. “I look forward to continuing the great work she has done and to assist new adopters achieve efficiencies using UniCat.”
From the 2nd of January, 2026, new sales and technical enquiries should be directed at Sarah on 07860 324570 or [email protected].
Existing UniCat customers should also contact Sarah or use the online help form on the UniCat website, www.unicat.uk.