[OPEN-ILS-DEV] FW: Expansion of the OCLC Control Number

[Hardy, Elaine]

Reminder of the change in OCLC number effective July 2013

 

Elaine

  _____  


J. Elaine Hardy
PINES Bibliographic Projects & Metadata Manager
Georgia Public Library Service
1800 Century Place, Ste 150
Atlanta, Ga. 30345-4304

404.235-7128
404.235-7201, fax
ehardy at georgialibraries.org
www.georgialibraries.org
www.georgialibraries.org/pines




From: Oliver,Sonya [mailto:olivers at oclc.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 7:47 AM
To: OCLC-SHARING-L at OCLC.ORG
Subject: Expansion of the OCLC Control Number

 

WorldCat continues to grow!  As indicated earlier this year, the OCLC
Control Number is anticipated to reach one billion after July 1, 2013. At
that point, OCLC will increase the length of the OCLC number to
accommodate a variable length number string.  If you use and/or store OCLC
MARC bibliographic records and the OCLC Control Number, you will notice a
change after July 1, 2013. You will need to check the systems at your
institution that use OCLC MARC bibliographic records and the OCLC number.
You may need to implement changes to ensure those systems will be able to
successfully handle the longer OCLC number effective July 1, 2013.

 

For example, libraries may be impacted in the following areas:

.         Cataloging and IT librarians that download OCLC MARC
bibliographic records to the library's local system

.         Resource sharing librarians using third party ILL management
programs that store or use the OCLC number for searching

.         Reference services librarians using WorldCat Local to help a
patron locate an item 

Publishers, vendors and others that partner with OCLC may be impacted as
follows:  

.         Integrated Library Service (ILS) vendors that use OCLC MARC
bibliographic records to test compatibility with OCLC     

.         Publishers, material suppliers and electronic content providers
that use OCLC MARC bibliographic records in their systems  

.         Developers maintaining services that use OCLC Control Numbers

 

Format of the OCLC Number

The OCLC Number resides in the MARC 001 field and may also be stored in
other fields.  The OCLC Number in the 001 field is formatted as follows: 

 

OCLC numbers 1 through 99999999:

*	"ocm" prefix 
*	oclc control number, 8 digits, right justified with leading zeros 
*	A blank space as the last character
Example: ocm00012345 

 

OCLC numbers 100000000 to 999999999:

*	"ocn" prefix 
*	oclc control number, 9 digits
Example: ocn123456789 

 

OCLC numbers 1000000000 and higher:

*	"on" prefix 
*	oclc control number, 10 or more digits
Example: on1234567890 or on1234567890123 

 

In the 035 field, the OCLC number is usually stored with the prefix
(OCoLC) and without the "ocm", "ocn" or "on" prefixes; for example:
(OCoLC)1234567890.

 

When this change takes place

The "on" prefix will be used to identify OCLC Numbers that contain ten or
more digits.  Nine or eight digit OCLC Numbers will continue to use the
"ocn" or "ocm" prefix as described above.  The update to the OCLC Number
is backwards compatible so that previously defined OCLC Numbers will not
be impacted.  Previously assigned OCLC Numbers will continue to work as
before.

 

What action should you take?

If you use and/or store OCLC MARC bibliographic records and the OCLC
Control Number, you will notice a change after July 1, 2013. You will need
to check the systems at your institution that use OCLC MARC bibliographic
records and the OCLC number.  You may need to implement changes to ensure
those systems will be able to successfully handle the longer OCLC number
effective July 1, 2013.

 

Sample records

OCLC plans to make a file of sample MARC bibliographic records containing
the new, expanded numbers available for download on the OCLC Control
Number Expansion website
<http://www.oclc.org/batchprocessing/number-expansion.htm>
(http://www.oclc.org/batchprocessing/number-expansion.htm) before the end
of the calendar year 2012. When the file becomes available, announcements
will be widely posted in the same places this notice is being posted.
Anyone may then download the file for use in testing their systems.

 

For more information

Additional technical information regarding this change is available here
<http://www.oclc.org/batchprocessing/number-expansion.htm>
(http://www.oclc.org/batchprocessing/number-expansion.htm).  Please visit
the Web <http://www.oclc.org/batchprocessing/controlnumber.htm>
(http://www.oclc.org/batchprocessing/controlnumber.htm) to learn how OCLC
Control Numbers are created and how OCLC Batchload services give libraries
the ability to match, merge, format and synchronize OCLC Control Numbers
between their local systems and WorldCat.  To see new OCLC Control Numbers
when they are assigned, visit Watch WorldCat Grow
<http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/newgrow.htm>
(http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/newgrow.htm).  If you have questions, please
contact us at support at oclc.org or 1-800-848-5800 (USA) or 1-614-793-8682.

 

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