Eventually we would like to ask the Metadata and Cataloguing Subcommittee to make a recommendation on minimum bibliographic standards in the form of a Briefing Note. This backgrounder will serve as a source of information, guide exploration and discovery for the committee in that work and provide context for the decision.

Background

It will be very important to establish minimum bibliographic standards for the CLSP. So much of the work done by the Bibliographic Standards Working Group has laid an excellent foundation for our new Alma/Primo environment, but the Metadata and Cataloguing Subcommittee may find that they need to reassess some past practices. Now that we are in a shared system it will be very important that everyone adhere to a set of minimum standards. At some point we want CLO to re-endorse the minimum standards.

Minimum Bibliographic Standards

What are minimum bibliographic standards?

The OCLS minimum bibliographic standards are a set of content and encoding guidelines that are needed to describe resources and facilitate discovery. Resource Description and Access (RDA) provides bibliographic description rules for resources loaded to the Colleges’ Union Catalogue. MARC21 is the encoding standard that is used to put this resource description in a machine readable format. MARC21 is used by Alma/Primo a mechanism to facilitate search, faceting/filtering and discovery.

Why do we need to use them?

Bibliographic records loaded to and from the Network Zone (NZ) have the potential to be used by all CLO libraries, impacting use and discovery for all. 

Example 1: the resource type information in Alma’s bibliographic records display is dependent upon coding in MARC21 control fields, particularly LDR, 007 and 008. The content in these control fields determine how records are filtered and displayed to all staff in Alma in both the Institution Zone (IZ) and the Network Zone (NZ). For more information visit the section on the Resource Type Field in https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/010Getting_Started/050Alma_User_Interface_%E2%80%93_General_Information/Searching_in_Alma#Rules_Used_to_Create_the_Resource_Type_Field_MARC_21_KORMARC_and_UNIMARC.

Example 2: Primo VE search sections, facets and filtering are equally dependent upon coding in the control fields for end user display. For more information, visit https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Primo/Product_Documentation/020Primo_VE/Primo_VE_(English)/120Other_Configurations/Mapping_to_the_Display%2C_Facets%2C_and_Search_Sections_in_the_Primo_VE_Record and https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Primo/Product_Documentation/020Primo_VE/Primo_VE_(English)/050Display_Configuration/050Configuring_Local_Resource_Types_for_Primo_VE

Alma Tools and Resources:

• Metadata Editor: visit Navigating the New Metadata Editor page for instructions and video https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/Metadata_Management/014Navigating_the_New_MD_Editor_Page

  • IZ

  • NZ

  • Rules for navigating the MD editor can be found here https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/Metadata_Management/020Navigating_the_MD_Editor_Page

• Normalization Rules (local and network) - “Normalization rules are used to change or update bibliographic metadata at various stages, for example when the record is saved in the Metadata Editor, imported via import profile, imported from external search resource, or edited via the "Enhance the record" menu in the Metadata Editor.” Normalization rules can be applied to records at the IZ and the NZ. For more information on normalization rules, visit https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/Metadata_Management/016Working_with_Rules/020Working_with_Normalization_Rules

  • IZ

  • NZ

• Merge rules - Merge rules provide instructions on how two records are to be merged. https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/Metadata_Management/016Working_with_Rules/030Working_with_Merge_Rules

• Import Profiles (local & network) — set of instructions to load, match/merge/overlay, edit, etc. Import profiles can be created to fit the needs of any particular vendor. Any number of import profiles can be created.

Local location, item and policy decisions:

Responsibility for physical inventory location and item policy decisions belong to the Institution Zone (IZ). 

Item material types: Upon migration, both the Generic Migration Form and Sirsi Migration Form > Item Material tab standardize material types. If all libraries can accept the material type defaults, then we should see system wide consistency of application through the Primo View It and Get It tabs.  Default item material types are assigned at the library level when an ‘item’ is added to a ‘holdings’ record.  Further information is available here:  https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/Physical_Resource_Management/015_Managing_Physical_Resources#Adding_a_Physical_Item_to_an_Existing_Title Location and item policies are handled at the local level.

Note: If libraries wish to make future changes to their item material codes they can re-configure the table for Physical Item Type Descriptions.  Information is available here: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/Physical_Resource_Management/070_Configuring_Resource_Management/100_Configuring_Physical_Item_Material_Type_Descriptions

Excerpt: Migration Form, Item Material Tab

Protected Local Fields in IZs and the NZ: Libraries that wish to maintain local information in their IZ record can do so through the use of local tags.  It has been approved that “Individual colleges will use 950-999 fields to hold data that is local to the institution and should not be ‘overwritten’ by data in Network Zone records. All colleges will use the 900-949 fields to hold data that is common across the network and should not be overwritten my Community Zone records.” (See Briefing Note -2 - Protected Local Fields in IZs and the NZ)

During migration, if a 900-949 tag has $9 LOCAL subfield, it is removed and the tag is kept in the NZ.” For additional context, visit the Ex Libris Knowledge Base, Local Extensions (MARC) at: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides_and_Tutorials/010Alma_Migration_Considerations_for_Consortia#Local_Extensions_(MARC) section of https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides_and_Tutorials/010Alma_Migration_Considerations_for_Consortia.

Note:  that adding local extensions to records maintained in the NZ may require some configuration of the MD (metadata editor).  Additional information is available here: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/100Managing_Multiple_Institutions_Using_a_Network_Zone/03_Managing_Records_in_Consortia/010Network-Managed_Records_in_a_Network_Zone#Adding_Local_Extensions_to_Bibliographic_Records_in_the_Network_Zone

Authority Files:

Alma is equipped to handle multiple subject authorities, but only one type of name authority can be used (global or local). Local authority definitions can be added. See https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/Metadata_Management/060Working_with_Authority_Records#Adding_a_Local_Authority_Definition for more information.

Cataloguing policies adopted by other library systems to support Network Zone cataloguing:

GALILEO INTERCONNECTED LIBRARIES (GIL):

The https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzbLCmZK-afaMWZBZkY3UEhVMW8/view?usp=sharingwas adopted in response to the need for a more collaborative cataloguing framework to support Network Zone cataloguing.