• Article Type: General
• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 17.01

Description:
We have a few records (usually one or two each day) from OCLC Connexion which do not overlay properly.

The oclc_server log says "Input docx merged into ABC01.000271652", but the new fields from the incoming record have not been included in the resulting record.

Most records *do* merge properly.

One reason that this occurs is when OCLC records have an ELvl (Encoding Level) field that is numeric.

Resolution:
Note 1: If the oclc server log does not have "Input docx merged into ...", but instead shows a *new* record being created, please consult SKB 8192-3513.

Note 2: If you find that removing the preferred_doc_cdl (described below) doesn't help and if the merge almost *never* occurs, then please consult SKB 8192-3353.

Changing the OCLC line in ./xxx01/tab/tab_preferred from:

OCLC preferred_doc_cdl union_preferred

to:

OCLC

corrected the problem.

The preferred_doc_cdl is a program which decides (based on the presence or absence of certain values in certain fields) whether the incoming record should supercede the existing record.

In the case of a union catalog, with records coming from a variety of sources, this is quite important and appropriate.

In the case of OCLC Connexion, where one pretty much *always* wants the incoming record to take precedence, it is less appropriate. (And, in cases such as the above, has actually caused problems.)

Note 3: As an alternative to eliminating preferred_doc_cdl entirely, you may want to try adjusting the values in the union_preferred, which is the table that preferred_doc_cdl uses in calculating which record is preferred.