three priorities of maintenance
DESCRIPTION
Particularly for serials catalogers, much of the work we do is related to record maintenance, rather than the creation of entirely new bibliographic records. I propose and defend this order of priority for record maintenance: 1. Correct what is wrong; 2. Supply what is missing. 3 Beautify what is ugly. This presentation has also been published as a closed-captioned video.TRANSCRIPT
Three Priorities of Maintenance
The (Sad) RealityO Serial record maintenance is foreverO Some “bad pennies” will turn up
again and again….O There is more work than we will ever
finishO There will never be a perfect
database
So We Must Set Priorities
3 Priorities of Maintenance
the wrong
Correct
the missingSupply the uglyBeautif
y
Correct
(Major) Title changes
Holdings / items moving
Typos in searchable
fieldsISSN
Correct
Supply
ISSN Frequency changes
Additional corporate
bodiesNumbering
notes
Supply
Beautify
Problems in spacing Or, punctuation,
British / Canadian
spelling in notes
Rephrasing notes
Variations in Desc. area
Beautify
Judgment CallsIf you’re not sure …
O Does it affect access?O Was it reported by a patron or
staff member? O Will it cause problems
O for ILL, Acquisition, or Branch staff?
O Other state universities or FLARE?
Judgment CallsWill it take longer to explain why you can’t do it than it will take to do it?
No song and dance, please….
May I Suggest?O Keep a list of “beautify” records that
you can pull up and work on, or assign to student workers
O “Beautify” changes can be done at odd moments, low-energy periods, or times of frequent interruptions (desk time, chat reference, etc.)
May I Suggest? O If you see a lot of a particular error
or problem, speak to a supervisorO Others may need trainingO There may be a software errorO You may have misunderstood
somethingO Always record system nos. when
reporting a problem
