Grouped OCNs and cooperative management

About Grouped OCNs

Grouped OCNs appear in knowledge base collections in title-level data. Grouped OCN functionality improves the WorldCat Discovery experience by using a matching process to associate records that describe the same work.

When two records are merged in WorldCat, the new OCLC number will appear in the OCN grouping in the knowledge base.

In WorldCat Discovery

Grouped OCNs can make your e-resources more discoverable by surfacing a link in WorldCat Discovery to a full-text resource on an equivalent record for a physical item.

Expand to see an example

In the picture below is an item record surfaced from a search in WorldCat Discovery. The item record is for "Accounting Demystified," a print book with OCN: 52799783. "View eBook" links are included on the item record for the print book. The links are created from data in title records the library selected in knowledge base collections in their WorldShare Collection Manager instance.

In Collection Manager

Within the title-level fields in Collection Manager, Grouped OCNs are listed. The Grouped OCNs in the knowledge base title-level data help surface a link to full-text in the WorldCat Discovery record.

Expand to see an example

Next to each "View eBook" link shown in WorldCat Discovery, is the knowledge base collection name and title. You can use the collection name and title shown in WorldCat Discovery to search for the title records in Collection Manager.

In the picture below is the knowledge base title data for "Accounting Demystified," an eBook with OCN: 53382613. Listed in Grouped OCNs is the OCN from the print resource surfaced in WorldCat Discovery, OCN: 52799783.

Grouped OCN errors

Although they are not always the reason for faulty associations in WorldCat Discovery, erroneous Grouped OCNs sometimes cause links to surface on records where that e-resource is not related.

Expand to see an example

In the picture below is a WorldCat Discovery item record for "Oceanic Explorations." A link to "Out of the Ashes" appears as a misfit resource amongst the "Oceanic Explorations" titles. The cause could be an errant Grouped OCN in the knowledge base data for "Out of the Ashes."

If the library removed the Grouped OCN from the "Out of Ashes" title data and if there were not other issues with the knowledge base data or in the WorldCat record (such as issues with Standard Numbers), the link would no longer surface on the item record in Discovery.

Best practices for Global edits

You can report errant knowledge base links and/or record associations to OCLC. Use the Global tab to submit your edits to the collection globally. After completing the edits, click Review & Save. Upon saving, you will be able to review your edits. When you apply your changes, your edits will be available immediately in the respective global fields. See How to update title information.

Caution: Global changes may be overwritten by a subsequent provider load if the title is an OCLC-cataloged record.

Focus on title-level enhancements

Sometimes erroneous Grouped OCNs are a sign of other missing or erroneous data elements. We recommend that you focus on enriching knowledge base title data. Doing so can have a broad effect across more than one item record surfaced in WorldCat Discovery.

Initiate a Grouped OCN refresh

When you enhance the title-level knowledge base fields, the system will use your enhancements to automatically re-match to records in WorldCat to repopulate and potentially correct Grouped OCNs listed in the knowledge base (unless your edits are exclusively to Grouped OCNs). Enhancing title-level fields can also improve erroneous record associations surfaced in WorldCat Discovery. You can initiate the re-matching process that refreshes Grouped OCNs in both:

Locally-created collections
Global collections that you edit cooperatively

Campos de título

See the table for details about the global and local title-level fields available for editing:

Location in the UI	Editable field in global titles	Global tab: Edits applied globally	Local tab: Edits applied locally	In KBART
Title Properties accordion	Título Nombre	X		publication_title
	Journal: Coverage start & end dates		X	date_first_issue_online; date_last_issue_online
	eBook/Non-Serial: Date	X		date_first_issue_online; date_last_issue_online - year may be repeated
	Journal: Volume & issue numbers		X	num_first_vol_online; num_first_issue_online; num_last_vol_online; num_last_issue_online
	Journal: Embargo		X	embargo_info
	eBook/Non-Serial: Author	X		first_author
	eBook/Non-Serial: Provider	X		publisher_name
	GovDocs Repository ID	X		vendor_id
	Título URL		X	title_url
	OCLC Number	X		oclc_number
	Anular número de OCLC	X		-
	Números de OCLC agrupados	X		-
	Print identifier: ISSN or ISBN	X		print_identifier
	Online identifier: eISSN or Other ISBNs	X		online_identifier
	Notes: Title Note; Staff Note; Coverage Note; Location Note		X	title_notes; staff_notes; coverage_notes; location
Title Linking accordion	Override Link Scheme		X	oclc_linkscheme
Title Linking accordion	ID del título (clave de enlace)		X	title_id

Delete known Grouped OCN offenders

Focus on title-level enhancements because doing so can sometimes correct errant Grouped OCNs. However, adding and correcting title-level data will not guarantee the removal of specific Grouped OCNs even after automatic rematch. Therefore, it is a good practice to delete a known erroneous Grouped OCN in the process of enhancing title-level data.

What if there are several Grouped OCNs (6+) in the collection? Do I need to review them all?: When there are several Grouped OCNs (6+) listed for a title, a general guideline is to focus on enhancing the title-level data. Delete any known erroneous OCNs.; However, in honor of your time, you do not need to review or delete several OCNs. Your data enhancements will have an impact.

What happens if I delete them all?: There is nothing to stop you from deleting several Grouped OCNs and doing so might improve some faulty associations in WorldCat Discovery. However, the re-matching process that populated the Grouped OCNs in the knowledge base will not be triggered until changes are registered for another title-level field. This is why we recommend focusing on enhancing title-level data fields.

When the re-matching process is triggered, we cannot guarantee that the erroneous Grouped OCNs will not be repopulated.

Report Standard Number issues

Some erroneous record associations are caused by knowledge base data and/or to WorldCat data. For example, an incorrect Standard Number (ISSN, ISBN, etc.) in the knowledge base, in WorldCat, or in both the knowledge base and WorldCat will cause erroneous record associations and incorrect Grouped OCNs. The errant associations will persist even if you delete the incorrect Grouped OCNs.

There are similar complications with exact-title issues. Contact OCLC Support to report:

Issues with Standard Numbers (ISSN, eISSN; ISBN, Other ISBNs)
Issues caused by exact-title mis-matches

OCLC will fix Standard Number issues in the knowledge base, in WorldCat, and in partnership with providers. OCLC will correct exact-title mis-matches by creating a "dummy" collection.

Report errors to OCLC

Información complementaria

See How to update title information for instructions on submitting edits to global collections.

After you save edits made in knowledge base title fields, any due changes in WorldCat Discovery will be visible after processing. Processing time varies but is not instant. Changes are often visible by the following day.

Once you submit your edits to the cooperative, your edits will be loaded to the global knowledge base within 5 calendar days and visible after processing.