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Use of the CAT DATE Field in Innopac Bibliographic Records

Scope

Describes the use of the CAT DATE field in Innopac bibliographic records, approved by CSG, June 19, 1997.

Content

Current (and foreseen) uses of the CAT DATE field in Innopac bibliographic records

  1. Collecting monthly statistics on volumes added to the collection.
  2. Collecting monthly files of new cataloging for OCLC upload.
  3. Collecting other review files that include processing dates (collection management reports, cataloging production statistics, etc.)
  4. Producing spine and other labels via the labels program.

Outline of the problem

  • Sometimes spine labels are needed after the date when an item is cataloged. These exceptional cases include reclassifications, corrections to erroneous call numbers, replacements of old labels, and volume/copy adds.
  • When these post-cataloging labels are called for, the CAT DATE is manually set to "today's" date to cause the labels program to output the label. Subsequently, review files created for uses 1-3 above pick up these records with erroneous CAT DATEs. Considerable effort is required to eliminate these records from statistics files, and will be required to remove these records from OCLC upload files.
  • To support the removal of these records from statistics and other files, staff currently make notes about maintenance activities in the 090|f. The messages in 090|f are read by staff creating statistics lists and records are manually removed from these lists if found (or thought) to contain erroneous CAT DATEs.

Proposed solution

  1. Leave CAT DATE blank in all Innopac bibliographic records until full cataloging is completed. Leave CAT DATE blank in all Innopac bibliographic records for materials that are not intended to be fully cataloged for the collection (e.g. class dups and class materials on reserve, records created for local processing purposes.)
  2. Set CAT DATE to "today's" date in all full cataloging on the date of completion. (If revision of the bibliographic record is included in the process, the CAT DATE would be set when revision is complete.) This is what we do now. For these records, the CAT DATE will continue to be used for spine label production.
  3. If spine or other labels are required post-cataloging, add "today's" date to the 955 |u command for the labels program. Do not change the CAT DATE
  • 955|u +l 970605
  1. Modify the labels program to read the date in the 955 if one exists, and if not, to read the date in the CAT DATE. The date in either place would be used by the labels program in the same way that the CAT DATE is used now.
  2. Modify the search commands for the review file that collects records for daily spine label production to include an entry OR 955 has 970605 (or whatever today's date is).

Exceptions

  1. Serial analytics: If brief, pre-cataloging bibliographic records are created, leave CAT DATE blank, and add "today's" date to the 955 to produce a spine label if needed. (These brief records will continue to appear as status "cataloged" in the online catalog.) When fully cataloged, put "today's" date in CAT DATE. (This will enable the collection of full cataloging records for OCLC upload.)
  2. Volume and copy adds: Put "today's" date in the 955|u. Do not change the CAT DATE. (Dates will continue to be put in 950|i to mark items for labels when more than one item exists.) Statistics for added copies or volumes could be collected by searching for a combination of
  • Item record create date between 1st and 31st of the month
    AND
    (CAT DATE between 1st and 31st of the month
  • OR
    955 has 970601 --or whatever dates apply, in YYMM format.