[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Acquisitions Link to catalog problem resolved

[Mary Llewellyn]

Hi all,
We had a breakthrough today. We realized that the Link to Catalog search
string on the selection list and purchase order was including the 245 c
statement of responsibility in the title portion of the search. Once we
removed that from the search string, the search was successful. Ironically,
the more fully cataloged an item was, the more apt it was to fail. The
lesser Ingram records had no 245 c, and so were successful in finding
matches in the catalog, where the fuller Title Source records failed. 
We've removed the 245 c from the Line Item MARC Attributes to eliminate it
from future loaded bib records and so cut down on the need to edit the
search string.
Also, we've been able to use the UPC as an identifier to link to nonbook
catalog records. We had already added it to our Line Item MARC Attributes
definitions, but the Link to Catalog search included the ISBN, which is
usually a bogus number not found in the catalog records. We found that in
each search, we have to remove the ISBN portion of the search. That leaves
the UPC as the primary numeric search, and our nonbooks items are then
retrieved.
Kudos to Ben Shum for lighting our way to a solution to both of these vexing
issues!
I've written instructions for our acq libraries to edit their searches.
Draft copies have been given to a couple of our librarians, and I plan a
general release later this week to the rest of our acq libraries. If anyone
would like a copy, please let me know.
Mary


Mary Llewellyn
Database Manager
Bibliomation, Inc.
Middlebury, CT
mllewell at biblio.org