Cataloging Manual

Bibliographic Record Maintenance

Deletion of Records

1. Bibliographic and Item Records – If an OPAL library is deleting or transferring the last item record attached to an OPAL MARC or non-MARC bibliographic record, the bibliographic record should be deleted as well. Remove OCLC holdings.
2. Batch Item Records – For batch item record deletion, gather item records (no orders, reserves or serials with checkin/holdings records) into a review file and contact OpalHelp@ohionet.org with a request to batch delete the records and OCLC holdings.
3. Order Records – Contact the OPAL system administrators for procedures on deleting order records
4. Checkin Records – Individual libraries should use their own discretion when deleting checkin records.
5. Serials - When manually updating or deleting serials holdings, also remove any holdings set in OCLC.  It's possible to batch remove holdings and LHRs with a list of OCLC numbers using Connexion Client or WorldShare Record Manager. Institutions participating in the monthly OCLC data sync have additional specific instructions.
6. Course Reserves - These can not be batched and need to be deleted manually. To delete the items and their bibs, you will need to first remove the item from reserve and also delete any of the media fields attached to each bib record (if applicable). 
7. Bibliographic records that do not have an attached checkin, item, or order record will be deleted one year from last update.
8. Brief non-MARCIVE bibliographic records that are not suppressed from OhioLINK will be deleted one year from last update.
9. Bibliographic or item records with duplicate headings, such as duplicate barcodes or OCLC numbers, will be deleted one year from last update.
10. Bibliographic records with no location (i.e., ‘none,’ ‘bad’) will be deleted one year from last update.

Withdrawn Items

Item records for materials withdrawn from an OPAL library's collection may be deleted immediately at the time of withdrawal or at regular intervals determined by each library. Item records not being deleted immediately should be suppressed from the public catalog. These records should also have their STATUS changed to “w WITHDRAWN” to prevent inclusion in statistical reports or other processes.

Handling Duplicate Bibliographic Records and Transfer of Attached Records

1. Each bibliographic entity should be represented in OPAL by only one bibliographic record. It is each OPAL library’s responsibility to transfer its order, item, or checkin records from brief bibliographic records or duplicate bibliographic records to existing OPAL MARC bibliographic records.
2. When the same bibliographic entity is treated as a serial by one OPAL library and as a monograph by another and these occurrences are represented by bibliographic records with different OCLC numbers, both bibliographic records may co-exist in the OPAL database.
3. Duplicate bibliographic records are determined by OCLC number and/or if the following fields in the duplicated records match:
   • Author
   • Title
   • Publisher or Distributor (except for serials)
   • Latest copyright date
   • Edition statement
   • Collation
   • Series (except for serials)
4. Illustrator or translator
   
   A different imprint date does not justify a new record unless it can be determined that unique modifications were made to the bibliographic entity. For more information, consult LCRI 1.0 and Chapter 4, When to Input a New Record in OCLC Bibliographic Formats and Standards.
    
5. When duplicate OPAL MARC bibliographic records with different OCLC numbers (e.g., OCLC control numbers recorded in a 019 field) are found, the following procedures should be followed to eliminate the duplication:
   • Check OCLC to determine if one of the bibliographic records has merged with the other record. Transfer the attached record from the OCLC-deleted record to the merged record.
   • If one record is DLC and the other is not, consider notifying the libraries whose holdings are attached to the least preferred record, according to OCLC standards.
6. When duplicate OPAL MARC bibliographic records with the same OCLC numbers and the same content are found, the records should be merged using authorized cataloging standards. See Appendix A.
7. When duplicate OPAL MARC bibliographic records with the same OCLC numbers but different content are found further investigation is needed. For instance, if two OPAL MARC bibliographic records have the same OCLC numbers, title transcription, and LCCNs, but they have different collations and the lack of agreement does not appear to stem from a simple typographical error, holding libraries should be contacted to resolve the duplication.
8. Care should be exercised when merging records to conserve any local notes or enhancements.

Monthly Cleanup

Maintenance reports are run monthly at the end of the month and communicated to libraries via listserv. Each library is responsible for reviewing the report and taking action as outlined:

OhioNet also runs the following monthly reports and performs cleanup as required:

• Redundant Item List (more than one OhioLINK or OPAL item attached
• Redundant OhioLINK and OPAL items report
• Unsuppressed Bibs with No Unsuppressed Items
• Duplicate OCLC Report
• Print Items on Ebook Bibs