By Lynne Mildenstein
If you are looking for a way to control online costs, save re-keying of original
bibliographic records in both your local system and WorldCat or automate the setting
of your OCLC symbol, you may want to take a look at the OCLC Batchloading
service. Batchloading is a way for libraries to process offline many bibliographic or
local data records. The Batchloading service can set your library's OCLC holding
symbolon bibliographic records in WorldCat or add original records to the WorldCat
database. Libraries can also use batch-loading to delete holdings, change OCLC
symbol, upgrade holding library codes or retain local information on an archived tape.
A batchloading project can be planned on either an on-going or one-time only basis.
To initiate a batchloading project, a tape or file of your library's bibliographic records
must be submitted to OCLC for evaluation. Once your records have been approved,
you can submit the tape or file on a regular basis -- monthly, quarterly, semi-annually
or annually.
After your batchloading tape or file has been received by OCLC, staff members will
process your library's records and issue a summary of the outcome. This Batchloading
Processing Summary alerts you to the number of records that were read and billed,
which were resolved and which remain unresolved.
Unresolved records appear in a Processing Exception Report. No action was taken on
these records for one of the following reasons:
- A record contained coding error and therefore could not be added to the
database.
- A record matched on multiple records within the WorldCat database and so
could not be added.
- The algorithm in the institution's record did not match the record type of the
WorldCat record.
- No matching record was found, so the institution's record could not be added.
Resolving the unresolved records on the Processing Exception Report is the library's
responsibility. Once the records have been corrected, they can be resubmitted in the
next batchloading tape or file, or you may choose to resolve the records online via
Passport for Windows or Cataloging Micro Enhancer for Windows software.
For more information about the OCLC Batchloading service or how to translate the Batchload
Processing Summary, contact Rosario Garza at BCR
