[Evergreen-catalogers] How to explain the display of "empty records"?

[Erica Rohlfs]

Hi Mary,

I don't know if I can be of much help. I see that you're already aware of Wish
List - Add color coding when there are no holdings
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1966342> so I'm just listing it
here for others who are following the discussion. I agree with Elaine that
having the empty bib records, a.k.a. shadowed records color coded was once
a very helpful feature. I also agree that some mechanism to filter out the
truly empty bibs would be a good feature, too. Some of the confusion also
stems from the fact that, if there is an associated 856 subfield 9 on the
record, it's not considered empty. This is one of the factors that
consortia consider when removing the e-resources from the catalog (only one
factor, I know there are many others). Some libraries do filter on Group
Formats/Editions to consolidate results, where possible. But, this doesn't
answer the question of why the records show up in the results :-) You've
noted that there are catalogers' considerations for retrieving empty bibs.
Really, the only circulation reason that stands out in my mind is that,
with the permission to override HIGH_LEVEL_HOLD_HAS_NO_COPIES, staff can
place holds on empty bibs. I don't know how many use cases there are for
it, maybe Acquisitions and Collections Librarians in the community have
specific use cases. I'd love to learn more about them.

Thank You,
Erica


On Tue, Oct 4, 2022 at 1:27 PM Mary Llewellyn via Evergreen-catalogers <
evergreen-catalogers at list.evergreen-ils.org> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I could use some advice.
>
> We have our catalogers use CONS as their search library so they can find
> all records, with and without items, when they need to catalog their own
> items.
>
> However, the public services staff use their own library as a search
> library, and that's where we run into staff confusion.
>
> When they run into a bib record with no items, they report that to us as
> an error.
> When they are searching in their own library, they expect to only retrieve
> records with their items.
>
> I'm trying to come up with a succinct explanation for why they see those
> records. I do assure them that their public does not see the "empty"
> records, that they only appear in the staff catalog. Can someone share with
> me the official reason for why these records display?
>
> I wish there were some way to prevent them from coming up in their
> searches.
> --
> Mary Llewellyn
> Database Manager
> Bibliomation, Inc.
> 24 Wooster Ave.
> Waterbury, CT 06708
> mllewell at biblio.org
> _______________________________________________
> Evergreen-catalogers mailing list
> Evergreen-catalogers at list.evergreen-ils.org
> http://list.evergreen-ils.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/evergreen-catalogers
>


-- 
Erica Rohlfs, MLIS, PMP
Senior Implementation Project Manager
Equinox Open Library Initiative
erica.rohlfs at equinoxOLI.org
https://equinoxOLI.org
phone: 877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
direct: 770-709-5572
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