Publishing to OCLC: Enrich LHRs Using OCN Instead of MMS ID for Unchanged/Deleted Holdings
OCLC processes incoming Local Holding Records (LHRs) by applying a 'replace all' mechanism. If WorldCat has three holding records for an OCN and the library sends just one holding record, WorldCat will replace the three existing holdings with the single incoming holding. This is documented here: https://help-nl.oclc.org/Metadata_Services/WorldShare_Collection_Manager/Data_sync_collections/Create_an_ongoing_data_sync_collection/Local_holdings_records_collection/30MARC_21_Format_for_Holdings_Data_and_OCLC_local_holdings_records
Currently, Alma's LHR publishing job for OCLC takes this into account by enriching the publishing of modified holdings with unmodified/deleted holdings that belong to the same bibliographic record. According to the Alma documentation: "Note also that when a holdings record is updated, it is republished together with all the holdings records linked to the bibliographic record, including the deleted holdings." This is documented here: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/090Integrations_with_External_Systems/030Resource_Management/110Publishing_to_OCLC#When_are_Records_Exported.3F
However, this enrichment does not sufficiently meet our institution’s needs, as we have valid cases of multiple bibliographic records sharing the same OCN.* For example, when a holding record from bibliographic record A, which shares the OCN with bibliographic record B, will be published to WorldCat, WorldCat will delete all holdings related to bibliographic record B. This occurs because the current enrichment mechanism is based on the MMS ID. While all unmodified/deleted holdings for bibliographic record A are included in the LHR publishing, those of bibliographic record B are excluded.
In order to prevent the undesired deletion of holdings records in WorldCat, Alma's enrichment mechanism of modified holdings records with unmodified/deleted holdings records would have to be based on the OCN rather than the MMS ID.
We raised a ticket with Ex Libris about this issue (#07691519), and product management advised us to submit this enhancement request to NERS or the Idea Exchange.
We would greatly appreciate it if Ex Libris could add an option to base the enrichment of unmodified/deleted holding records on the OCN rather than the MMS ID.
(*) The reason behind this issue is that our cataloging practices differ from those of WorldCat. For example, we maintain separate bibliographic records for hardcovers and paperbacks, while OCLC/WorldCat merges them. More information is available here: https://www.oclc.org/bibformats/en/about/input.html
Oki U.
shared this idea
Hello all,
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Alma Product Team.
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Oki U.
commented
In the meanwhile, we have found a workaround.
1. Publish the LHR file from Alma to an FTP-server so you can access it.
2. Use MARCedit to create a tab delimited file that contains 004 fields of the LHR file (= OCN)
3. Rename the first row in the output file with 004 to "OCLC number" so you can use it to create an itemized set from file. Remove all quotations marks (used by MARCedit to indicate a column). See for the column name: https://web.archive.org/web/20240719070839/https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/050Administration/080Managing_Search_Queries_and_Sets#:~:text=fields%20(020%C2%A0%24a)%20)-,OCLC%20number,-035%20field
4. Create an itemized set based on the file just generated. This itemized set will contain all bib records with the initially published OCNs.
5. Run the republish LHRs job to publish the set from step 4 (Alma menu > Admin > Manage Jobs and Sets > Manage Sets > Run a Job > "Republish Holdings records to OCLC (LHRs)")
6. Upload the republished set to OCLC