AnALEPHaDay

Everyone seems to have already noticed that a subfield "a" is being automatically added to the 852 field upon saving a Holdings record to the server. This is intentional. It has always been the plan to automatically insert this subfield into records before they are exported to OCLC, thus saving the cataloger the added burden of having to manually input the subfield and data. Do not be concerned about the fact that the subfield is in the wrong alphabetic order. This will also be correct automatically before the records are exported. We apologize for any confusion this sudden change may have caused.
[matthew]

For many newly-acquired Bobst monographs, we are now loading vendor-supplied Bibliographic records, as well as related Item and Holdings records. In order to suppress the display of call numbers in these records until after they have been cataloged, an automated change is being made to the Temporary Location box in such Item records.

For these Bobst monographs, the Temporary Location box must then be unchecked during the cataloging process. This step will be added to all scripts that pertain to these vendor records.

Except for serials, libraries other than Bobst should not be using or changing the Temporary Location box.
[matthew]

When you do a title browse for a numbered series, you may see one cluster with a lot of hits as well as numerous hits with numbering included. "Physica scripta" for example; the authorized form is: Physica scripta (Stockholm, Sweden : 1982). In Aleph, 490 is indexed with $v so you get a line in the browse index for each number. The 8XX $v is not indexed and you get the cluster with all of the hits that are matched by the authority record. There's a "v." that comes with each line so you sometimes see "v. v." if the series uses v. for numbering. Don't worry about it, get over it.

Changing a Record's Format
Remember that if you ever need to change the format of a Bibliographic record, be sure to change both the ALEPH FMT code (under Edit -- Change Record's Format) and the Leader byte 06 before attempting to save the record to the server. You'll get an error message if the FMT and LDR are out of sync.

BIB System Numbers
It has been officially decided that when we are speaking or writing about a Bibliographic record's system number, it will be more efficient to omit the leading zeros. For example, if the 001 field has "000529628", we will say or write only "529628". [matthew]

Here's the BIBCO narrative that I submitted to the Program on Cooperative Cataloging:

NYU has now migrated from Geac Advance to Ex Libris Aleph, with Day One on the new system in mid-July 2008. While we were able to catalog titles entirely new to the database, many cataloging workflows had to cease for a time between early May and late summer. Some things are now becoming routine and some are less so but we hope that BIBCO contributions will increase soon. Our principal BIBCO cataloger has been working on a special project that is mostly not BIBCO-able.

Our participation in other PCC programs was also less during the migration but we are mostly back on the NACO, CONSER, and SACO path.

Our normal workflow includes taking much copy from OCLC WorldCat and a recent discussion on the PCCLIST talked about the nature of minimal records and BIBCO standards. We collectively need to have a model that allows us to do some of the building of BIBCO records mechanically or through accretion of metadata from institutional records or other record loads. OCLC already does considerable building of the master record from incoming records; what we need is something more like the metadata that is becoming usual in NewGen environments. If someone adds a tag or review or picture, that becomes available in the master cluster. Not a BIBCO record, but a BIBCO cloud of metadata for a particular manifestation of a work/expression.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [CODE4LIB] WorldCat Hackathon at the New York Public Library
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:45:32 -0700
From: Roy Tennant
Reply-To: Code for Libraries
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU

Join fellow coders, hackers and tech-enthusiasts for a two-day WorldCat Hackathon at the New York Public Library. Sponsored by the OCLC Developer's Network and NYPL Labs of The New York Public Library, the WorldCat Hackathon gives participants the opportunity for two full days of brainstorming and coding mash-ups and other Web services to take advantage of all that WorldCat, the world's largest bibliographic database, has to offer.

November 7-8, 2008
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Science, Industry and Business Library, New York Public Library, 188 Madison Avenue
$30 registration fee

http://worldcat.org/devnet/index.php/2008NYCHackathon

* It's a chance for anyone interested in structured data to get their hands on the new WorldCat Search API.
* Participants both inside and outside the library industry are encouraged to participate.
* Gain development access to 1.2 billion items from more than 10,000 libraries worldwide.
* Integrate these resources with many others to create innovative new services.
* Share your creative vision and be a part of the next wave of online library development.

Ideas, outcomes and code from the Hackathon, together with a linked
participants list, will be shared during and after the event for others
to download and build on.

Web Services provided for the Hackathon by OCLC include the following, although any web service can be used at the event:

* WorldCat API
* xISBN, xISSN, xOCLCNUM
* WorldCat Identities
* Registries including institution, reviews, citations (lists), tagging
* Terminologies
* Metadata Crosswalk

Bring your laptop, your ideas and your curiosity, and we'll supply breakfast, lunch and snacks. Space is limited to the first 65 participants, so register early to assure your participation.

Roy Tennant
Senior Program Officer
OCLC Research

You can now catalog multiple titles bound together ("bound-withs") in ALEPH. A script for doing so, along with examples and an illustrative diagram of the record relationships, has been posted in the Cataloging documentation section of the wiki (http://wiki.library.nyu.edu/display/TSD/ALEPH+Implementation). Please let Elizabeth Lilker (elizabeth.lilker@nyu.edu) know if you have any questions. Hopefully you'll be pleased that, unlike Advance, ALEPH only uses one Item record to represent a physical volume. [matthew]

Sometimes you just want to do an opac search. You can do a browser view (CTRL-o) of the record that you're looking at in the client, whether bib or holdings. You can also go to the Aleph opac at http://hopkins1.bobst.nyu.edu:8991/F and do a phrase search, more or less like you could in old Geac BobCat. It hasn't been highly configured, just kind of out of the box but it can be helpful.

You can also use this to get a combination of bib and circ information. Click on the holdings line to get details about the items and circ.

When shelf-listing in ALEPH, it is probably a good idea to browse by "All call number", rather than by "LC Call Number". Since we are still working on converting all of the 852 first indicators from Geac, this is the only way to guarantee that you'll find every call number. However, when searching for the next microfilm reel number, use the "Shelving Control Number" search. For example, browse for Film 99999 to be taken to the end of the list. [matthew]

In Geac Advance, we asked that series headings on copy cataloging be searched in BobCat. This was partly to make up for the delayed authority processing and we thought that series could use the extra attention. Now that we have built the Aleph database and it has gone through LTI processing, it is no longer necessary to give series the extra attention. You should check the book and the record and be sure that any series that is on the book is correctly given in the record, and vice versa. If any heading on the bib record -- name, subject, series -- looks strange, you should search the heading by doing a hotkey or a separate authorities search. Regular, weekly LTI processing will be instituted as soon as possible.

LTI will also change 440s to 490/8XX pairs as part of regular processing.

There will be another ALEPH cataloging "question and answer" session on Tuesday, October 14, 10:00am-12noon, in the Avery Room of the Avery Fisher Center (Bobst Library, 2nd floor). It will be an opportunity to ask more questions about ALEPH, share tips & tricks, and to see some of the newer procedures demonstrated (e.g., common text strings, adding Holdings for 856s, indicators for 853s, the "Unlink" and "Link" buttons, and deleting records). [matthew & elizabeth]