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Discontinued knowledge base collections

Plan to deselect discontinued collections. Find out why knowledge base collections in Collection Manager are discontinued. Find tips and recommendations for your workflow.

About discontinued collections

WorldCat knowledge base collections are discontinued when two conditions are met. The first condition is that the collection is scheduled to no longer be updated by provider data. The second condition is one of the following:

  • A provider or aggregator tells OCLC they are no longer offering a collection
  • OCLC no longer has rights to include the data in the knowledge base. This might happen when a provider partner of OCLC's no longer has rights to share the data
  • OCLC or a provider might discontinue collections when a contract changes because data from a more direct source becomes available

The knowledge base includes collections that are static or do not receive regular provider updates. These will not be discontinued and look and function the same as more dynamic collections do. OCLC applies updates as they are received and sometimes reaches out to the provider to request updated data.

OCLC will remove discontinued collections from the knowledge base. See the schedule, below.

Setting functionality is retained

When a collection is discontinued, all settings and associated functionality is sustained. For example, depending on your configuration, titles will still be exported to Google Scholar, ILL terms and licenses will remain operational, and WorldCat holdings and proxy settings will still be applied.

Perpetual access

Discontinued collections might contain unique titles to which your library has perpetual access. It is possible for titles to no longer be offered or updated by a provider, but for your library to still have access.

Libraries with License Manager can look for the License(s) Available attribute in the Collection Manager interface to help them identify discontinued collections that have a license attached.

Deselect discontinued collections

Search for discontinued collections

Discontinued collections are marked in the WorldShare Collection Manager interface. You can perform a search and use a search filter to see all of the discontinued collections you have selected:

  1. Sign in to the WorldShare interface and navigate to Metadata > Collection Manager.
  2. Select Collection as the Data Type and My selected collections as the Scope.
  3. Click Search.
  4. From the Filter by drop-down menu, select Discontinued.

Example of a discontinued kb collection

Select a replacement collection

There are newer versions of some discontinued collections. If a new version of a collection is available, we recommend you select the new equivalent collection if you still have access to those titles. Replacement collections are communicated in WorldCat knowledge base data updates.

Create a  collection

If there is no equivalent collection available and a collection has titles to which you want to retain access, create a knowledge base collection. You can download the KBART title data for the discontinued collection, modify it as needed, and upload the title data to the new collection you created. Tips:

  • You must include a unique numerical value for each title in the oclc_entry_id column of your KBART file
  • If you have shared the collection to another institution, remember to communicate with that library
  • Libraries with License Manager will need to associate a new collection with the license if a discontinued collection had a license. See Maintain licenses and templates
  • Consider submitting your collection as a cooperative collection. See the Guidelines for adding cooperative collections to the knowledge base

For more information, see Create a knowledge base collection.

Weekly and monthly data updates

OCLC posts the following lists that include discontinued collections and recommended alternative collections:

  • Just In Time (JIT) WorldCat knowledge base updates - Weekly
  • WorldCat knowledge base data updates - Monthly

Subscribe

To get email notification that the lists have been posted, follow News in the Collection Manager area of the Community Center (sign in with your WorldShare credentials).

Search across data updates

WorldCat knowledge base data updates are published monthly on the support website:

To search across knowledge base data updates:

  1. Start at the support site home page (help-es.oclc.org).
  2. Perform a search.
  3. Use the boxed categories to narrow your search down to Metadata Services > WorldShare Collection Manager > WorldCat knowledge base data updates.

Note: Data updates on the website are available for two years. OCLC maintains an archive for previous years. Please contact OCLC Support if you have questions about previous data updates.

Schedule for removing discontinued collections

Everything discontinued prior to 31 May 2019 will be deleted mid December 2019. Starting June 2019, discontinued collections will have a lifespan of six months+. For example, collections discontinued in June 2019 will be removed in January 2020.

OCLC removes discontinued collections from the knowledge base; We cannot ensure the accuracy of the title data and changes in platform and domain ownership can increase vulnerability to malicious activity. Discontinued collections have a lifespan of about six months+ before they are deleted. When collections are discontinued, OCLC lists them in knowledge base data updates and includes the scheduled month for delete and suggestions for alternative collections.

Discontinued in [Month] - will be deleted in [Month]

January - August
February - September
March - October
April - November
May - December
June - January
July - February
August - March
September - April
October - May
November - June
December - July

Plan to deselect discontinued collections before OCLC removes them from the knowledge base so you have a chance to select alternative collections. Find a clean-up schedule that works for your library. For example, manage discontinued collections monthly after the knowledge base data updates are published, or choose a less frequent cadence such as two times a year:

January (to cover July - Dec)
July (to cover Jan - Jun)

 Note: If OCLC has concerns about malicious links or other quality issues that could negatively affect libraries or our data processes, we will adapt the schedule to address the situation.

More information

OCLC discontinued a higher than average number of collections early this year due to changes around JournalSeek (openly.jsCate.[xxx]) collection data. A notice was sent out and the text is published on the support website.

If you need details about a specific collection that has been discontinued or if you believe something has been discontinued in error, please contact OCLC Support