Physically deleting bibliographic records

Description

The Aleph routines which delete z00 "doc" records (bib, authority, HOL, etc., records) just *logically* delete them.  They always leave a stub record (with "DEL $$aY", LDR, FMT, and CAT fields).  Is it possible to *physically* delete Aleph bib, authority, and other doc records?

Resolution

There is no Aleph routine which physically deletes doc records.  But, if the library is a Bib, Authority, or Course library, SQL like the following can be used to physically delete the stub records left by the logical deletion:

 SQL>  delete from z00 where z00_doc_number in (select z13_rec_key where z13_title is null); 

(Z13 records with a blank z13_title are ones whose bib record has a DEL=Y field.)

This article discusses the handling of Z00R records:  How to delete stub z00r records left by bib record deletion  .

• Article last edited: 1-Sep-2017