A c t i o n f o r L i b r a r i e s — J u l y 2 0 0 5

OCLC Update

By Regan W. Harper
Connexion Usage Stats Now Available
See your Connexion activity on the OCLC Usage Statistics Web site at www.stats.oclc.org/cusp/nav. Log on with any OCLC authorization number and password. You can also follow a link directly from Connexion browser useful links. (OCLC will add the link to the client useful links in July.)

View your statistics by institution or by authorization number. Reports are available for both client and browser activity. Daily reports are available for the current month. Monthly reports will be available for 18 months. You can set up an automatic e-mail of reports, and you can download the reports into a spreadsheet for location manipulation.

For more information, contact Regan Harper (rharper@bcr.org) at BCR.

Connexion Changes Affect CatExpress
The June Connexion enhancement installation resulted in several changes for CatExpress users:

Diacritics now display correctly in all views.
Results sets are now returned in main entry order, rather than by the number of holdings.
The 50-field limit has been removed. Users can now add their holdings to records with more than 50 fields with no problems.
The Title search on the Brief search screen has been replaced with the Title Phrase search. Both Title keyword and Title Phrase are available on the Advanced search screen.
Index choices on the Advanced search screen have been updated to remove obsolete indexes and to include the index label.

For more information, contact Linda Gonzalez (lgonzale@bcr.org) at BCR.

Validation Changes Affect Connexion Client and Browser
The June install of enhancements to the Connexion client and browser included changes to how the system processes validation errors. Users may encounter a Validation process failed message in either the browser or the client. This message may be generated if validation processing is unavailable, for example, from a system problem or if validation processing fails from an unexpected condition during validation of a record.

If you have gotten this error message and there are no messages on the system alerts page at www.oclc.org/support/systemalerts/default.asp, you should:

Save the record (if possible).
Record the Save File number, Session ID, the time, the View (if browser) and information about the record, e.g., new, existing (OCLC #), locked, bibliographic, authority, etc.
Log off/on and try to validate the saved record again or repeat the workflow.
If you can repeat the problem, record the same information and send the information on both occurrences to the Customer Support Department via phone at (800) 848-5800 or via e-mail at support@oclc.org. In addition, include the authorization and password that were used.
If you cannot repeat the problem, you can continue your work. Optionally, you may send the information to OCLC for the failed attempt.

WorldCat Cataloging Statistics Available via PSW
Cataloging File Statistics is now available through Product Services Web (PSW). The report will be updated early in each quarter (January, April, July, September) and will be retained for 360 days after it was last accessed. To see the report, select Records and Reports and then select OCLC Cataloging File Statistics. OCLC will discontinue distribution of the paper copy effective immediately, but will continue to summarize WorldCat statistics quarterly at www.oclc.org/worldcat/statistics/default.htm.

New OCLC Custom Holdings Tutorial Available
A new tutorial, "Custom Holdings," is now available at www.oclc.org/support/training/firstsearch/tutorial/. Check out this new tutorial and all the other helpful tutorials at this site. OCLC staff will continue to revise existing tutorials and add new ones as necessary in the coming months.

WebDewey/Abridged WebDewey Updated
WebDewey and Abridged WebDewey are updated quarterly. Both services contain the latest version of the schedules, tables, Manual and Relative Index entries from their respective enhanced DDC databases. The hierarchical displays in WebDewey and Abridged WebDewey feature updated main class and division captions (e.g., 700 Arts & recreation; 790 Sports, games & entertainment). Find the June 2005 updates at www.oclc.org/dewey/enhancements/enhancement200506.htm.

Release Date Changed for Connexion Client 1.4
OCLC Connexion client 1.40 release has been moved from June to July, as June was a busy month for many dealing with migration issues. Moving the client release from June to early July will help OCLC to complete migration before introducing the client, so that support staff will be available to help with upgrades if needed. For more information about the upcoming changes to client 1.40, please see www.oclc.org/connexion/interface/client/enhancements/future.htm. Client 1.40 will include:

Updates to text string functionality; the cursor is now left at the end of the text, even if your text crosses cells.
A new align-right option for cataloging with the Arabic (and Hebrew) script.
A Chinese (Simplified) interface; previously Chinese (Traditional) and Japanese interfaces were announced.

The following enhancements were previously announced as July-September, but are now scheduled to be updated in July:

Hebrew, Cyrillic and Greek script cataloging.
Access to the HKCAN (Hong Kong Chinese Authority Names) database.

Watch for more information about the client release in the coming weeks.

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