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Replace WorldCat bibliographic records

Discover how to validate and replace existing bibliographic records from the MARC 21 editor in WorldShare Record Manager.

When you update and replace MARC 21 WorldCat bibliographic records, you are helping to improve the quality of records in WorldCat. For guidelines on which fields and which records you can edit and replace, please see Guidelines for Experts and Bib Formats and Standards, Chapter 5 Quality Assurance.

If you are working on a locked record and replace the WorldCat record, the lock is removed from the WorldCat record.

Validate and replace WorldCat records

The system performs a full validation on the record automatically before replacing it, whether you edited it or not.

  • If a record contains invalid data, the system generates a list of errors. Correct the errors and then retry replacing the record.
  • When a record is valid, the system:
    • Replaces the record in WorldCat
    • Adds the full date/time stamp in field 005.
    • Notifies you that the record has been replaced

Replace an existing WorldCat bibliographic record

  1. From the MARC 21 editor, update the WorldCat bibliographic record.
  2. Select Replace Bibliographic Record from the Save drop-down list. If there is a lock on the record, the lock is removed.