21.7.  Deleting records

Serial records are deleted when the information in the record is better recorded in another record (or records).  There are three common situations that lead to a record deletion:

A duplicate record was input inadvertently

Records were consolidated

A publication was cataloged as a serial then determined to be a monograph

Remember to determine that all accurate information in the deleted record is reflected in the retained record(s) before reporting the record for deletion.

Deleting CONSER records in OCLC is a two-part process due to the distribution of the CONSER database to LC and other bibliographic utilities and services.  Prior to OCLC’s removal of the record in the WorldCat, LC first removes the record from the distributed version of the CONSER database ( FN 4).  This first step insures that the record is no longer distributed from LC to other systems and catalogs and that it is also deleted from other systems that include the CONSER database.  CONSER catalogers report duplicate CONSER records to LC ( FN 5) first and include a statement in field 936 to identify the duplicate record for other catalogers.  (See also CEG Section E, Field 936 (p. 4).)

936 ## $a RECORD REPORTED FOR DELETION–USE #...

The record deletion report, or duplicate record report, is then forwarded to OCLC after LC removes the record from its system.  Forms are available to submit such reports to OCLC through the U.S. mail (http://www.oclc.org/oclc/forms/bibdup.htm) or on the World Wide Web (https://www3.oclc.org/app/bibdup/).  (See also CEG C7.4.2 and the “Duplicate Record Report” at the end of Section C7. Duplicate Records .)

The second part of the deletion process is performed by OCLC.  After verifying the accuracy of the duplicate record report, OCLC removes the duplicate record from the WorldCat system, updates the holdings information, and adds field 019 to the retained record which contains the OCLC control number for the deleted record.

Deletion of non-CONSER records is not reported to LC since the record is not in the CONSER database.  If a serials cataloger identifies a non-CONSER serial record that needs to be deleted, they need only report the record to OCLC for the record to be removed from the OCLC system.

21.7.1.  Duplicate records

If a cataloger identifies two or more records that represent the same set of serial issues, it must be determined whether or not the record(s) should be removed from the CONSER and/or OCLC databases.  There are five steps to the process of deleting duplicate records:

1)   Determine if the record(s) is a permissible duplicate

2)   Select which record to retain, which to delete

3)   Determine if data from the deleted record should be added to the retained record

4)   Add deletion statement in field 936 of duplicate record

5)   Report the record(s) to LC (if it's a CONSER record), or OCLC (if it's not CONSER)

See 21.7.2 for an example of duplicate records.

Permissible duplicates.  CEG Section C7.2, "Categories of Permissible Duplicates," gives detailed information as to which categories CONSER considers to be permissible duplicates and which OCLC accepts as permissible.  The table below illustrates the categories and their general status in CONSER and OCLC.

Select the record to retain.  Once duplicate records have been identified it must then be determined which record to retain and which to report for deletion.  CEG C7.3 establishes three criteria on which to base this decision.

1)   For CONSER records, retain the record with the highest level of authentication.  If the duplicate records have the same authentication level then choose the best or most complete record.

2)   For non-CONSER records, retain the record that most adheres to AACR2 choice and form of entry, or the one that is most complete.

3)   All other factors being equal, select the record input first.

Identify data to add to the retained record.  The record deletion process should not result in the loss of catalog data.  It may be that the duplicate record covered issues and related information that the retained record did not.  If there is accurate data in the duplicate record not initially included in the retained record, freely move the additional data into the record that is retained.

Final steps.  The last two steps in the deletion process are discussed in 21.7 above:  add field 936 to identify the duplicate record and report the duplicate for deletion to either LC or OCLC.  If the record is a CONSER record, the report may go to LC, if the record is non-CONSER, report the duplicate to OCLC.  (See also CEG C7.4 , C7.5 .)  The OCLC control number of a deleted record is added to the retained record in field 019.

21.7.2.  Duplicate record examples from OCLC

Fields in bold represent information moved to the retained record or added for the deletion.

Deleted record

Retained record -- before

Retained record -- after

See also:

Module 21.  Modifying Records