• Collections & Technical Services
• Mar 08
• Issue: 220

Getting Your Holdings Current and Complete in WorldCat

There are times when an institution’s bibliographic holdings may not be completely reflected in WorldCat for one reason or another. If this is the case, you may have no easy way of identifying the records for which you need to cancel or set holdings. When this occurs, a reclamation project may be the easiest way to get your holdings in WorldCat in sync with the holdings in your local system. This type of project is meant as a one-time solution.

In a reclamation project, an institution sends the records from their local system, for which they want holdings set. After batch processing completes, a Scan Delete of the institution's holdings not updated by the batchload project is performed. This is done using a Date Stamp (typically the date the records are extracted for submittal to OCLC). Any holdings added to WorldCat after the Date Stamp are not removed by the Scan Delete.

Here are the steps:

Complete a Batchload Order form https://www3.oclc.org/app/batchload/.

After receiving a Batchload Project ID, submit a file (or files) containing ALL of your current holdings.

Based on information supplied on the Batchload Order form, an OCLC database specialist will set up your project for processing. During the setup process they will ask you what date to use for the Scan Delete of “untouched” holdings.

OCLC performs a scan/delete after processing your files, meaning there is no longer a period of time where your institution has no holdings in WorldCat.

You do not need to stop online cataloging, if that is part of your regular workflow. OCLC does recommend you stop deleting holdings until the Reclamation is complete.

OCLC is offering members a one-time free reclamation project. Members will be expected to keep their holdings in WorldCat current from that point forward, online through Connexion or using ongoing Batchload.

For more information contact Lauren Pinsley at Nylink via phone at 800-342-3353 or 518-443-5444, or via email at pinsleyl@nylink.org.

[OCLC - edited]

Collections & Technical Services Contact Information

Please contact Lauren Pinsley (pinsleyl@nylink.org), Lynne Graziadei (graziadeil@nylink.org) or Mary Edgerton (edgertonm@nylink.org) at Nylink with any questions. They are available via email or phone (518-443-5444/800-342-3353).