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OCLC Support

Why is a record that we do not hold shown as being held in WorldCat Discovery?

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Symptom

  • Item is incorrectly showing as held by your library (ghost holding)
  • Holdings are appearing on a record you don't own

Applies to

  • WorldCat Discovery

Resolution

1. Check holdings in WorldShare Collection Manager:

  • Navigate to WorldShare > Metadata > Collection Manager. Set the search scope to Title in the drop-down menu, and search either by the OCLC number, title, ISBN, or ISSN.
  • If the title is selected but shouldn't be, deselect the title in the knowledge base collection.
  • If you do not want holdings to show for any titles in the collection, disable the Maintain WorldCat Holdings setting in the collection-level settings.

Note: holdings changes made in WorldShare Collection Manager can take 24-48 hours to complete. 

2. Check holdings in WorldShare Record Manager:

  • Navigate to WorldShare > Metadata > Record Manager. Search by the OCLC number of the title.
  • If the title with that OCLC number is showing your holding, click on the title from the results list. Delete the holding on the title by clicking on Record > Delete WorldCat holding.

Note: Sometimes holdings are not deleted as expected when local bibliographic data is attached so you may be prompted to delete local bibliographic data as well.

3. Check Service Configuration settings.

  • The item holding is from a database that you have marked Treat as Held in the OCLC Service Configuration> Metasearch Content > Default Databases and Licensed Content.   See Default Databases and Licensed Content for configuration information
  • Look in the OCLC Service Configuration>WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local>Relevancy and Scoping.  Is there a second symbol listed in their first level of relevancy?  If there is, check the holdings for that symbol in WorldShare Record Manager.  A second symbol with holdings in this section will cause holdings to appear in WorldCat Discovery

If these do not work or you need help with any of these steps, please contact OCLC Support and provide the OCLC number of the title that is showing as held incorrectly.

Page ID
16428