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OCLC Support

MARC Record delivery troubleshooting

Find information about the qualities necessary for MARC record output and possible reasons for missing records.

WorldShare Collection Manager uses four pieces of information from the knowledge base to determine whether to output a record:

  1. Presence of an OCLC number
  2. Format value
  3. Coverage value, and
  4. Presence of a title URL

Presence of an OCLC number

An OCLC number is required for all titles. Any title that does not have an OCLC number with a corresponding record in WorldCat (and that has not been matched to an OCLC number by the system) will not output a record.

Titles must have an OCLC number (OCN). A title might be missing an OCLC number if:

  1. No record exists for the item in WorldCat.
  2. A record exists but because of the complexities of cataloging electronic items, it is not classified as an electronic resource in a way that corresponds to the knowledge base’s matching process.

There are 2 options for viewing gaps in OCLC number coverage:

Format value

Titles in the knowledge base are designated by format with a specific coverage (coverage_depth in KBART) within some formats. Collection Manager uses these format designations to determine record output. Available formats are:

  • Journal
  • e-Book
  • Audio
  • Image
  • Video
  • Other

All formats could output records if they meet certain requirements around coverage value and presence of a title URL.

Coverage value

Titles that are of Journal format have an associated coverage value.

  • Titles that are of Journal format will output records if the titles have a coverage value of:
    • Full Text, or 
    • Print
  • Titles that are of Journal format will NOT output records if the titles have a coverage value of:
    • Selected Full Text
    • Abstracts
    • Indexed

Presence of a title URL

Some formats require a title URL to output a record.

  • Formats that require an OCLC number and a title URL to output a record:
    • Journal (with a coverage value of Full Text)
    • e-Book
    • Audio, Image, and Video formats
  • Formats that require an OCLC number but will output a record even if there is no title URL:
    • Journal (with a coverage value of Print)
    • Other formats

For more information, see Title-level settings in knowledge base collections, the Format and Coverage sections.

Missing Records

Possible reasons for missing records:

  1. Titles are often available through more than one provider. If you have a title in multiple knowledge base collections, Collection Manager will deliver a single record for the knowledge base title and the record will have multiple URLs.
  2. Though OCLC and its partners work closely together to ensure a record for every e-resource title, there may be variances in the number of records received because some partner delivery programs are tied to customer holdings rather than sales history.
  3. Records may be in OCLC's cataloging queue depending upon how partner metadata feeds coincide with titles' street dates.
  4. Past cataloging practices concerning multi-volume titles may have recommended a set record with multiple URLs being used for multi-volume titles