[Yulpub] Fwd: The well-known author, On Order

[Suzanne Lorimer]

The following e-mail exchange will be of interest to all public service 
folks, I think.

-Sue


Sent yesterday to Catalog Problems:

>>The Orbis record for this title has as author, ON ORDER, which is linked 
>>to a seach for this phrase as an author.
>>
>>-Sue

Reply from Steve Arakawa and Suzanna Lengyel:

>Sue, the record has been deleted.
>
>--Steven Arakawa
>PS: Some background info. from Suzanna Lengyel:
>
>Dear All,
>
>Rebecca, you may have taken care of the one record that had been brought 
>to Steve's attention, but that did not eliminate the problem.  And by the 
>problem I mean that, after each EOD load from certain vendors, records 
>appear in the OPAC where the author is "On order."  And this author stays 
>there until Acquisitions edits the bibliographic records (i.e., eliminates 
>the "on order" information).
>
>As I understand it, the connection between the 910 field and the "author" 
>in OPAC goes back to the time (in NOTIS) when bibliographic records 
>created at circulation desks were created as "provisional" records. Their 
>encoding level was '9'. And, where a fully cataloged record would have the 
>author in a 100 field, these "level 9" records had the author in the 910 
>field. (And the title in the 924 field (instead of 245)).
>
>Thus, the OPAC mapping had to pick up whatever was in the 910 field as the 
>"author".
>
>Unfortunately, some of our EOD vendors put the "on order" code in the 910 
>field. That's why "Mr. On Order" is such a prolific author.
>
>In an earlier conversation, Eva Bolkovac thought that, by now, we have few 
>of these old "level 9" records left. I.e., that many (most?) have been 
>overlaid by fully cataloged records.
>
>If we knew that there is none left, we could eliminate the mapping between 
>the 910 field and the OPAC author.
>
>Suzanna

  Suzanne Lorimer
Coordinator of Research Services
226 Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven, CT  06520-8240
(phone) 203-432-8371  (fax) 203-432-8527