October 14, 2013

Duplicate records

You might notice more duplicate records than usual in the NHU-PAC right now.  This is attributable to adjustments we're making to accommodate a forthcoming change in the structure of OCLC control numbers.  These numbers are one of the key ways we limit duplication in the database.  While we're making changes to some of our indexes, some of the new records going into the NHU-PAC aren't automatically matching to duplicates (if present) and require manual followup.

If you regularly send MARC records to NHAIS Services for loading to the NHU-PAC, there's no need to change your routine.  If you download records from the NHU-PAC for use in your catalog, choose whichever record you like if you find more than one choice that matches the item you're trying to catalog.  If you add your library's holdings to NHU-PAC records through Holdings Maintenance, it doesn't matter which record you add your holding to if there are duplicates--we'll eventually merge the holding information onto one record.  If you come across duplicates when searching for ILL purposes, you might want to consider the different holdings on the records before creating a request on one of them.

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