WorldShare Record Manager Release Notes, August 1, 2023

Introduction

This release of WorldShare Record Manager provides a new feature for participants in the OCLC Member Merge Program to merge two duplicate WorldCat records.

Builds upon the existing Record Manager 'Compare' feature to allow you to look at two WorldCat records side-by-side, field-by-field.
- The visual field-by-field comparison allows you to easily identify gaps or differences in the WorldCat records.
- A new merge dropdown list makes it easy for you to quickly merge the records directly from the Compare screen.
For existing users of WorldShare applications, this allows you to stay in your familiar interfaces without the need to go to Connexion client.

About the OCLC Member Merge Program

Overview

The OCLC Member Merge Program is designed to empower OCLC Members to reduce the presence of duplicate bibliographic records in WorldCat. Training and upgraded cataloging permissions enable Member Merge participants to merge existing duplicate WorldCat records.

Induction

New participants receive documentation and training resources to review. Once you complete the documentation and training and are ready a start a trial phase, an assigned OCLC reviewer will work with you to establish the process and provide sets of potential duplicate records to process. The review phase typically takes several months at a minimum depending on the volume and timing of the review sets submitted to the reviewer. After you successfully complete the review process, you are granted full merging rights in WorldCat.

Administrative actions

Action
If you are a current participant in the OCLC Member Merge Program and want to merge records using WorldShare Record Manager: Ensure you have a WorldShare username and you have access to Record Manager under the Metadata tab If you have questions about ensuring your username is correct or creating a new WorldShare username with access to Record Manager, please contact OCLC Support To activate merge functionality in Record Manager, please contact OCLC Orders and supply the following information: Contact information, including institution name OCLC Institution symbol WorldShare username(s) that need merge functionality enabled Include "Member Merge in Record Manager" in the subject line of your request OCLC will assign the Cataloging Member Merge role to the WorldShare usernames.
If you are interested in participating in the OCLC Member Merge Program: Inquiries from interested libraries are welcome. Please note: to be eligible to participate in Member Merge, a library must first be a Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) member Institution. To apply or find out more about the Member Merge Program, please email AskQC (include "Member Merge" in the subject line).

Action

If you are a current participant in the OCLC Member Merge Program and want to merge records using WorldShare Record Manager:

Ensure you have a WorldShare username and you have access to Record Manager under the Metadata tab
- If you have questions about ensuring your username is correct or creating a new WorldShare username with access to Record Manager, please contact OCLC Support

To activate merge functionality in Record Manager, please contact OCLC Orders and supply the following information:

Contact information, including institution name
OCLC Institution symbol
WorldShare username(s) that need merge functionality enabled
Include "Member Merge in Record Manager" in the subject line of your request

OCLC will assign the Cataloging Member Merge role to the WorldShare usernames.

If you are interested in participating in the OCLC Member Merge Program:

Inquiries from interested libraries are welcome. Please note: to be eligible to participate in Member Merge, a library must first be a Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) member Institution.
To apply or find out more about the Member Merge Program, please email AskQC (include "Member Merge" in the subject line).

New features and enhancements

Compare and merge two bibliographic records

New "Merge" dropdown menu for WorldShare Record Manager users with the Cataloging Member Merge role

After being assigned the Cataloging Member Merge role by OCLC (see Administrative actions, above), you will see a new button in the record comparison screen. After comparing two records side-by-side, you can choose to merge them together and select which record will be retained.

When the merge process completes, your retained record is updated via the merge field transfer rules and a new entry in the 019 field is present with the OCLC Number of the non-retained record.

Important links

Post-release sessions

To help you become familiar with the new features, the following pre-recorded video is available: WorldShare Record Manager and the OCLC Member Merge Program.

Documentation

Merge information is now included with the Compare bibliographic records documentation

WorldCat Validation release notes

WorldCat Validation release notes provide current OCLC-MARC updates; changes to tagging conventions and coding practices for Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings records; and new MARC codes.

Virtual AskQC office hours

Join OCLC Metadata Quality staff to discuss WorldCat quality issues and cataloging questions. Visit AskQC for information about upcoming office hours, previous office hour recordings, and supporting materials.

Support website(s)

Support information for this product and related products can be found at: