Standards for Creating New Records
This memorandum is prepared by Magda El-Sherbini, Chair of the Cataloging Policy Board, and the working Group to Study Shared Bibliographic Records Standards. If you have any questions regarding this memorandum, please contact Magda El-Sherbini at 292-1963.
Statement of the problem: Prior to the OSCAR/INNOVAC merger, each of the primary users (Acquisition Department and Cataloging Department) of the independent systems were following different standards for creating bibliographic records based on the needs of that area. Now Acquisition and Cataloging need to use the same guidelines to determine when a new bibliographic record should be created. This applies not only to titles received in different formats (in which case cataloging would create a completely new record), but also affects other areas of concern such as multiple or multi- national printings of the same title and treatment of photocopies and reprints.
New policy: Acquisition and Cataloging Departments as well as all libraries contributing records to OSCAR should follow the same standards in creating bibliographic records. The National standards are outlined in the OCLC Bibliographic Input Standards and provide guidance in determining when to create new records.
The new policy is that the following guidelines are to be applied in creating new bibliographic records for the shared database:
- Records may be added by manual keying using INNOPAC tags or MARC tags. When a MARC tag is needed to put data in a specific index, (e.g. call number for serial title changes), a MARC tag will be used in a provisional INNOPAC tagged record. The number of MARC tagged provisional records will increase as OCLC downloading and PromptCat services become available.
- Specific differences in physical format (e. g., paper vs. microform justify a new record.
- Specific differences in the publisher and/or date of publication justify a new record.
- Reproduction including photocopies justifies a new record.
It is NOT necessary to create a new record in the following cases:
- Absence or presence of multiple publishers, distributors, etc. as long as one on the item matches one on the record. Variation in multiple places of publication as long as the first place is the same (e. g., an item published in Denmark may show only Kobenhavn, but the same item issued in the U.S. shows Kobenhavn and Philadelphia).
- Variation in choice of place of publication and/or publisher for an item having more than one (e.g., if an item is published in London and New York, a British Library enters only London, but a U. S. Library enters London and New York).
- Change of place of publication and or/publisher among issues or parts of a serial or multiple item.
- Variation in printing or distributing date alone.
- Variation in physical format for a single subscription (e.g. what we receive on a single subscription is varied and unpredictable, i.e. paper and microfiche).
When past practice is in conflict with these standards, new bibliographic records will be built at the time a record has been handled for ordering, cataloging or re cataloging. All order, check-in, and item records will be attached to the new (i.e. correct) bibliographic record from that time forward. No general project will be done to change all past practice or occurrences in OSCAR.