[SOLAR-L] Response to John

[John R. Clark]

I sent this to John, thinking it went to the whole list. That's what happens 
before caffeine works its magic.

There were forums for each entity (Solar, Minerva, etc) but we discovered 
that soime guy named yugo in Bulgaria had hacked the server and was using 
the box to spam the world. The solution was expensive and that forum segued 
to Solar-L. At least that's one thing that happened.  As fow Solar Web info, 
all that got condensed under the new Maine Infonet page which is here.
http://www.maine.gov/infonet/index.shtml


I wanted to expand on my comments regarding things that cause problems when 
we load or re-load member's holdings. First, we all have/had bad cataloging. 
It was done because we had different people wearing that hat, we had 
stand-alone systems, we had inadequate resources, we had odd stuff given to 
us, we were in a hurry, new flavors came before we were up on the right way 
to catalog them (audio, large print, VHS, CD, DVD)
  In any event these and other reasons created thousands of bib records 
across the state that have just enough wrong so they create what we call a 
false unique. Given the limitations of our loading software, there's no way 
to catch and fix them enmasse. We do get an error file after loading, but we 
have to spend considerable time just weeding that to find all the new 
problem children.
  What can create a false unique-lots of things, but I've listed a bunch of 
them below for your edification.
1-missing 300 field
2-inaccurate or missing 245|h
3-001 that isn't accurate (this should match the 035 or be nuked)
4-misspelled words
5-lack of an ISBN/LCCN or one that is incorrect.
6-use of regular print bib for paperback, large print, audio or video 
edition
7-bib created in all capital letters (system, especially MaineCat, treats 
these as order records)
8-strange stuff in 020 or 520. Some folks restated the title in 520, others 
used 020 as a place to enter gift note.
9-double fields. I've stripped out thousands of duplicate 010 fields from 
bib records and they keep coming from some alien planet.
10 failure to use /|c(author name) in 245. This creates a bib record with 
the author's name appearing twice on the same line.
  Trust me, I walked out of the USC cataloging class swearing I'd NEVER do 
any cataloging...That was 25,000 records ago-after cleaning up much of the 
bad ones in Boothbay Harbor and then Hartland plus Minerva and Solar work. 
As a consequence, I've formed some opinions on how things can be fixed.

First, unless we come up with mutually agreeable ways to address the issue, 
the problem spawns every time a new batch of records is loaded. There are a 
significant # of libraries who have adopted what I consider to be the 
solution: do all cataloging in Solar and import into a local system. It 
takes me about 4 minutes to add to Solar and Koha-more when busy, less when 
things are quiet. I'm a one horse operation and I have added about 1700 
items in 2007.
Millinocket, Lubec, Lisbon, Dorcas, Ricker, Treat and PenBay follow this 
protocol as well and there are others I'm sure I've missed. Between what is 
currently in Solar and what is available from z39.50 sites, you'll be able 
to add about 97% of anything you want to a good bib record.
Second, unless libraries agree to work on individual cleanup files, the 
problem will continue to be compounded. Minerva libraries adopted this 
protocol and it has made a big difference. These are easy for me to create 
and we do not expect libraries to whip through them, just whittle away as 
time permits. Keep in mind that any record fixed in Solar needs a 
corresponding fix in your local system or the problem won't abate.

Keep in mind, too, that I'm an ongoing resource whether for systemic issues, 
cataloging questions or general questions. 938-4702, berek at tds.net

  It was great to see such a big turnout last Friday.
Regards,
John Clark
John R. Clark, M.ED, MLIS-Librarian, Hartland, Maine
"Buddy?" Josiah's grandfather snorted. "Put that poor
Booger's brains in a blue jay and the damn thing
would fly backwards."
-In My Father's Footsteps. AWIP