Field 6xx changed when Ctrl F3 option is used to copy fields from authority records to the BIB record

Question

Field 6xx changes when Ctrl+F3 option is used to copy fields from authority record to the BIB record. Why? Field 650 was added to the BIB record but after doing Ctrl+F3 and selecting an entry where the AUT preferred term is in field 481 the field in the BIB record is changed to 681.

Answer

This is the normal system behaviour, please see "Aleph Syslib Guide - Authorities", page 18:

"When a bibliographic record field is updated, in addition to updating the content of the field the system will also correct the field tag and indicators if they are different than those of the authority record. For example, if the authority record has 451 as a see-reference to a 110 field, and the heading in the bibliographic library originates from a 651 field, the system will correct the contents of the field, and also will correct the bibliographic tag to 610 (including the indicators)."

Additional Information

For 18n fields:
The subdivision records (fields 18n) are not ment to update the bibligraphic record at all. See also "Aleph System Librarian's Guide - Authority", chapter 3.3 where it states: "These headings are not linked to any bibliographic records." The subdivision records in the AUT library are only helpful when you build up a Thesaurus but not for the "normal" catalog. Instead of using field 18n in the AUT library you should use field 15n which has also a subfield x for "General subdivision" when you want to use the subject also in the BIB library.

Category: Cataloging (500) - ALEPH

Subject: Authorities (500) - ALEPH

• Article last edited: 7/1/2014