[Wactclc-alma] OCLC Streamlined Holdings project

[Thomas, Kirsti]

Hi folks!  I wanted to let you know about some unforeseen problems we ran into with the OCLC Streamlined Holdings project...

Last week I dug into the report files that OCLC sent and I found out that OCLC didn't always match the WorldCat record number in the bib record we sent them with the same WorldCat record number in the database. (!!!!!!!!!!)

In some cases, OCLC reported a match, but the record they matched us to had a different WorldCat number than one we sent. In some cases, this was because the old record had been merged into a new record. In other cases, the WorldCat record we sent still existed.

We had about 4000-6000 records at *each* library where OCLC matched our bibs to a completely different WorldCat record.

I've since learned from colleagues on the Troublesome Catalogers and Metadata Fairies FB group that OCLC is matching on title + ISBN, instead of WorldCat record number *unless* you specifically ask them to run the Streamlined Holding job using the WorldCat record number as the match point.

I heard from one colleague who asked OCLC to rerun the holdings update job for them because of this and I've requested the same.

I also discovered that OCLC created over 1800 brand new WorldCat bib records for each of my libraries (again, because they weren't matching on the WorldCat record number).

About 70-100 records per library were for print titles. Another 1771 records were triplicate/quadruplicate copies ebooks from a NetLibrary one-time package deal that the Washington State Library brokered back in the early 2000s.  Even though a single ebook existed, OCLC created a separate WorldCat bib record for each library and included the individual proxied URl in each separate bib record.

I've contacted Metadata Quality Control about getting rid of the duplicate bib records.

If you've done the Streamlined Holdings Update project, you'll want to check the Bibliographic Processing Report.

Here's how I identified the records where OCLC matched our bib to a different WorldCat record:

After importing the Bibliographic Processing Report delimited text file into Excel, I created a new column.

I used the Formula "=IF(C2=D2,TRUE)" (where C = the column with the original WorldCat record in the bib we sent and D = the column with the WorldCat record OCLC assigned our holdings to)

Any row where the columns matched had "TRUE"
Any row where the columns didn't match had "FALSE"

>From there I could filter for "FALSE"

I hope this makes sense. Ask away if you have questions!

It will be ok!

Kirsti S. Thomas
Library Technical Services Manager
Seattle Colleges
kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu<mailto:kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu>



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