Note: If you are a WMS library or using full WorldShare Collection Manager, see Mismatched records and best practices for cooperative edits.
When data in the knowledge base and records in WorldCat are unable to match via Standard Number and OCLC number, a match is sometimes made by exact title match. This sometimes causes mismatches between the data in the knowledge base and a WorldCat record which results in an incorrect or broken link displaying on an item showing in Discovery.
Cooperative management is encouraged for improving title-level data in cases where doing so can benefit many libraries. Likewise, you can report errors to OCLC.
See the Best practices for cooperative edits section of the Grouped OCNs and cooperative management page.
See How to update title information for instructions on submitting edits to the global cooperative.
Contact OCLC Support with the following information, if you have it:
*If you are unable to provide test proxy credentials, OCLC might need to conduct a screen-sharing session with your library to troubleshoot.
If a library patron has clicked on the "Report a broken link" form in the Discovery interface and you are wondering how to address the issue, see how to Manage broken link reports from WorldCat Discovery.
Note: More mismatches occurred prior to March 2018 when we refined material type requirements for matching. For example, it used to happen more often that an Ebook link would appear on a DVD record or an Audio link would appear on an Ebook record. Libraries sometimes fixed those mismatches by creating dummy collections and adding titles to force a correct match or to break a mismatch to remove a link. There is less need for dummy collections today, although they are still needed at times.
A dummy collection forces an exact match with the title and identifier in your knowledge base and that happens before and prevents the errant title match.
In some cases, libraries might prefer to make a dummy collection rather than attempt cooperative edits. Although they are not an ideal solution, they can be used to fix an issue only relevant to your library, an issue caused by errors in or missing WorldCat records, for testing, or for another reason. If you are new to your library and find a historical dummy collection, you might wonder how it works or why it was created.
Currently, dummy collections don't meet the guidelines for adding new collections to the cooperative. If your library is interested in submitting a dummy collection to the cooperative, contact us.
In the collection that contains the problem title:
Create a single collection:
Add a title/titles as needed: