Recent enhancements to Connexion browser

Authority Control Enhancements (Completed: August 2011)

The following enhancements are available to users of both the Windows-based Connexion client and the Web-based Connexion browser.

Changes to automatically add a closing date and insert the controlled heading into the bibliographic record when attempting to control a personal name tagged as a 100, 600, 700, and 800. Technical Bulletin 259 has been revised to include additional information for the personal name date expansion.
Other controlling changes include the reduction of unexpected automatic subfield flips and the resolution of selected known punctuation problems. Examples of resolved known problems include:
- Resolution of incorrect deletion of an exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?) when followed by ; $o arr.
- Resolution of the incorrect deletion of a period that is part of an abbreviation preceding $v
- Resolution of the incorrect handling of punctuation for uniform title headings when $n follows a closing parenthesis

These changes were discussed in a Webinar on August 18, 2011; view the recording here.

OCLC-MARC Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings Formats Update 2011 (Completed: August 2011)

OCLC implemented the changes related to the OCLC-MARC Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings Formats Update 2011. This includes MARC 21 Update No. 12 (dated October 2010), elements from other recent MARC 21 Updates whose implementations had been postponed, code list additions and changes published chiefly since May 2010, and other suggestions from WorldCat users and OCLC staff. Many of these elements, including those from MARC 21 Update No. 12, are related to Resource Description and Access (RDA).

Among the points of interest:

Definition of a new “Descriptive Cataloging Form” (Leader/18; OCLC Fixed Field: Desc) value “c” indicating “ISBD Punctuation Omitted” in the Bibliographic Format.
Implementation of four additional 007 fields (“Physical Description Fixed Fields”) for Kit, Notated Music, Text, and Unspecified, in the Bibliographic and Holdings Formats.
Implementation of a new fixed field element in the Computer File format, “Form of Item” (Computer File 008/23 and 006/06; OCLC Fixed Field: Form) in the Bibliographic Format.
Implementation of a new subfield $3 “Materials Specified” in field 034 “Coded Cartographic Mathematical Data” in the Bibliographic and Authority Formats.
Implementation of a new subfield $u “Uniform Resource Identifier” in field 561 “Ownership and Custodial History” in the Bibliographic and Holdings Formats.
Implementation of a new subfield $i “Relationship Information” in OCLC-defined 79X “Local Added Entry” fields in the Bibliographic Format.
Implementation of a new subfield $5 “Institution to Which Field Applies” in Series Added Entry fields 800, 810, 811, and 830 in the Bibliographic Format.
Implementation of three new Bibliographic indexes: Date Created as MARC (“dm:”), Entity Attributes (“en:”), and Physical Description (“p3:”). Two additional new Bibliographic indexes will be implemented later in 2011: Provenance (“pv:”) and Name and Title (“nx=”). All of these new indexes and other indexing changes described in Technical Bulletin 260 will gradually become apparent as WorldCat is reindexed over the next few months.

See Technical Bulletin 260 for more information.

NACO/Enhance expansion (Completed: August 2011)

In cooperation with the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC), OCLC has expanded the capabilities of OCLC participants with NACO authorizations. Individuals with NACO authorizations, along with those with National Level CONSER and National Level Enhance authorizations, which already include NACO capabilities, are now able to edit and replace BIBCO records (non-serial records with 042 code “pcc”). Creation of new BIBCO records and authentication of existing non-BIBCO records (i.e., adding 042 code “pcc”) will continue to be restricted to those with National Level Enhance authorizations in their specified formats. OCLC will be working with NACO participants to familiarize them with their new capabilities.

Authority Control Enhancements
(Completed: May 2011)

The following enhancements to authority control are available to users of both the Windows-based Connexion client and the Web-based Connexion browser.

Changes to punctuation; resulting in the ability to correctly control many more types of headings, including music uniform titles.
Changes to restrict automatic tag flips when controlling.
Changes to enable the ability to easily control many reported ‘uncontrollable’ heading.
Changes that now include the inclusion of candidate non-script headings when attempting to ‘control all’ headings in a bibliographic records.
Changes to enable the controlling of Library of Congress genre authority records (Note: requires Connexion browser or Connexion client version 2.30; not available in Connexion client versions 2.10 or 2.20).
Changes to standardize controlling to use a unified controlling window.

Technical Bulletin 259 provides additional information.

These enhancements were discussed in a Webinar on April 20, 2011; view the recording here.

Language of Cataloging Limiter (Completed: May 2011)

You can easily limit your searches by language of cataloging in the Command Line Search and Keyword/Numeric Search areas of the Search WorldCat screen. Select the Apply Language of Cataloging Limiter and select a language from the dropdown to limit your search to records with a specific language of cataloging. When you select the limiter in one search area it is automatically selected in the other search area. This does not apply to the Quick Search. In the Quick Search area you will need to continue to manually add the language of cataloging limiter (ll:) to your search.

Link to RDA Toolkit (Completed: May 2011)

If you subscribe to the RDA Toolkit, you can enable field-specific access to the guidelines in the online Toolkit. On the General tab, under Admin, select Preference. On the Preferences screen, click RDA Toolkit Options. Select the Enable RDA Toolkit check box and enter your RDA Toolkit subscription user name and password. While editing a bibliographic or authority record, move the cursor to a field you are modifying or adding and click RDA Tooklkit in the Functions list. This is available only in MARC Template view.

If there are no RDA instructions for a particular field, the message “MARC Element Not Found” will display.

A subscription to the RDA Toolkit is required to use this feature. If you do not know your RDA Toolkit subscription user name and password please contact rdatoolkit@ala.org. If you are interested in information about a subscription to the RDA Toolkit, please visit www.rdatoolkit.org/subscribe.

OCLC-MARC Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings Formats Update 2010 (Completed: May 2010)

This includes MARC 21 Update No. 10 (October 2009) and most of MARC Update No. 11 (February 2010), MARC Code List changes between July 2009 and April 2010, and user and OCLC staff suggestions. Many of the changes are related to the scheduled testing and possible future implementation of Resource Description and Access (RDA), the proposed successor to AACR2. See OCLC Technical Bulletin 258 for more information.

Expert Community Experiment (Completed: September 2009)

In response to requests from the cataloging community, OCLC introduced the Expert Community Experiment, which ran from February-August 2009. Members with full-level cataloging authorizations were given the ability to improve, upgrade, and make more changes than previously to WorldCat master records. The Experiment was a success, and all functionality will continue as part of the Expert Community. See the Expert Community Experiment Web site for more information.