[Evergreen-catalogers] Fingerprints

[Sarah Childs]

I've always thought it would be super useful for the catalogers to be able
to edit the groups, such as to merge groups that were split by "a novel,"
or to go in and indicate that a given record is not actually part of the
group.

On Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 11:52 AM Thomsen, Elizabeth <et at noblenet.org> wrote:

> Is your system using Group Formats and Editions for search results and
> placing holds?  We are, and we mostly love it, but we're running into
> problems with overgrouping because the fingerprint isn't specific enough to
> distinguish between different works.  This results in patrons getting an
> item that isn't really another format or edition of the work they wanted,
> as they expected.  This is a public service issue, but the data making this
> work is all about the cataloging.
>
> Here are a few situations we've run into:
>
>    - *Identical 245 |a for series:*  Popular series like "Diary of a
>    Wimpy Kid" and "Big Nate" often use what's really the series title as the
>    title, with the specific title as a subtitle, which creates identical
>    fingerprints so they all end up in one big group:   *Title:bignate
>    Author:peirce PartName: PartNumber:*
>
>
>    - *Generic collective uniform titles:*The current fingerprint formula
>    uses the 240 rather than the 245 when present for the title portion of the
>    fingerprint.  This makes sense for "true" uniform titles like "The
>    adventures of Tom Sawyer," bringing together editions that have that title,
>    or just "Tom Sawyer" or variants.  It doesn't work at all for collective
>    uniform titles like "Works" or "Selections."  For example, in our system it
>    groups together many different collections of Ibsen's plays that all share
>    the fingerprint T*itle:selections Author:ibsen PartName: PartNumber:*
>
>
>    - *Coincidences: *Sometimes fingerprints match because they are just a
>    combination or a common surname and short title -- for example, this
>    fingerprint matches both "Undercurrents" by Willo Davis Roberts and "Under
>    currents" by Nora Roberts: *Title:undercurrents Author:roberts
>    PartName: PartNumber:*
>
> We were able to "fix" some of the popular series by batch editing the *|b*
> to* |p*, which isn't really sustainable -- new titles and editions keep
> getting added, so we'll have to repeat this regularly.  The other issues we
> don't really have a good fix for.
>
> We're going to experiment with editing the fingerprint formula on a test
> system to be more specific, adding the authors first name and the
> subtitle.  (Not sure what to do about the 240's.  I know adding the
> subtitle will split a lot of titles because of the presence or absence of
> "a novel" but we'd rather have the system undergroup rather than overgroup
> and fill holds with items that don't really match at all.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> --
> Elizabeth B. Thomsen
> Member Services Manager
> NOBLE: North of Boston Library Exchange
> Danvers, Mass.
> www.noblenet.org
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>


-- 
Sarah Childs
Technical Services Department Head
Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library
250 North Fifth Street
Zionsville, IN 46077
317-873-3149 x13330
sarahc at zionsvillelibrary.org
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