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    Problem with OCLC authority record overlay

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

    Description:
    OCLC authority records that we want to export into Aleph often have trailing blanks on the 010s. In our local Aleph system, there are no trailing blanks on our authority records (indicated by a carat character). As a result, authority overlay can fail in such cases because the system fails to match an 010 with trailing blanks with the identical 010 in the local Aleph system which has no trailing blanks.

    When we export a record from OCLC that should merge with an existing record it’s inserting a new record into Aleph instead. How do you set up the OCLC exporting for authorities so that it only matches on the 010 and handles blanks correctly?

    Resolution:
    If you want to preserve the trailing blank and, in the case of a number like "n 12345678 ", the double blanks after the "n", you will need to continue using fix_doc_marc21_spaces -- as you have been.

    To get such numbers to match on the existing 010's, which lack these characteristics, you will need to make the routine 21 (used by the LCC index) in buf10 tab_filing look like this:

    21 del_subfield
    21 to_lower
    21 compress -^
    21 compress_blank
    !21 non_numeric

    The effect of this will be that the caret ("^") will be compressed in the z11_rec_key which is built. The z11_rec_key will look like the existing keys and will then match and overlay.


    • Article last edited: 10/8/2013