Question

Is there a limit on the number of items that can be on a holdings (MFHD) record?

Answer

There is no limit in the Voyager system design to the number of item records on a holdings record. But there may be practical limits.  The more items, the longer it will take to open a list of them in the cataloging client (in particular using the record hierarchy display).  Finding a specific item record in a very long list (if you do not know the barcode), could be extremely difficult.

Also note that items display in the order in which they are entered, unless you manually re-sequence them, so you may want to make sure the item data are standardized and normalized so that you can find a given item in a long list (assuming you do not know the barcode).

That being said, some customers report having several thousand item records attached to a single MFHD record.

Additional Information

If the above impact on retrieval response impacts staff, consider using multiple MFHDs.

While results vary based on hardware, tests show that when a single MFHD approaches 500 or more items, significant slowdowns in retrieval time occur when using "Get Items" in cataloging.

• Article last edited: 21-Nov-2020