[DCRM-L] Misleading FRBRized displays in WorldCat (long)

[Auyong, Dorothy]

As RDA implementation looms, I was wondering if other special collections libraries have run into the occasional glitch with FRBRized holdings/displays in WorldCat.

The other day I happened to run into one of our Rare Book staff who was trying to hunt down a reader's request.  The work he was requesting showed a Huntington holding in WorldCat but did not have a record in our OPAC.   For ease of identification (although you can't search it on WorldCat), I include the OCLC number.

OCLC number: 4040538

Title: The comprehensive commentary on the Holy Bible; containing the text according to the authorised version; Scott's marginal references; Matthew Henry's commentary, condensed, but retaining every useful thought; the practical observations of Rev. Thomas Scott, D.D. with extensive explanatory, critical, and philological notes, selected from Scott, Doddridge ... and many other writers on the Scriptures. The whole designed to be a digest ... of the best Bible commentaries.

Author: Thomas Scott; Matthew Henry; William Jenks

Publisher:            Brattleboro' [Vt.] Fessenden and Co.; Boston, Shattuck and Co., 1834-38.
Edition/Format:   Book : EnglishView all editions and formats

Rating:  (not yet rated) 0 with reviews - Be the first.

2.            Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens
San Marino, CA 91108 United States         Book + 1 other formats
< 1 mile
Map It
He couldn't find it in the card catalog and I told him that many times WorldCat "lumps different editions together."  Sure enough when you click on "just this edition" our holding disappears.  I still couldn't figure out in anyway shape or form what edition WE DID HAVE, since a different edition might have been of use to our researcher.  No clues from the WorldCat record.  On a hunch, I did a keyword search in our OPAC for "commentary, bible and Scott" and found this title which might have been the culprit, although I certainly wouldn't have classed it as an "expression" or "manifestation" to be FRBRized under the original work:
OCLC number: 191263940
Unifrm Title:       Bible. English. Authorized. 1814
Title:      The Holy Bible : Containing The Old And New Testaments, With Copious Marginal References; Also, The Introductions To All The Books And Chapters In The Bible. With The General Preface, As Affixed To The Commentary Of Thomas Scott, ... W. W. Woodward's Plan of Publishing
Imprint:                Philadelphia : Printed For, And Published By William W. Woodward ... Griggs & Dickinsons, Printers, 1814
I was also able to identify the possible "culprits" through First Search by looking at the record for The comprehensive commentary on the Holy Bible. Clicking on "Find Related"/ "Search for versions with same title and author" limit by items in your library (HUV).
None of these steps were transparent to the researcher or other non-cataloging staff members who just wanted to know if we had the book!
I'm deeply frustrated by all this.  Not only was a fair amount of staff time wasted on a wild goose chase for a title we didn't own, but it seems that this totally defeats the fundamentals of FRBR user tasks: Find/Identify/Obtain.

Dorothy Auyong
Principal Rare Book Cataloger
Huntington Library
dauyong at huntington.org<mailto:dauyong at huntington.org>


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/attachments/20120510/eef190e5/attachment-0001.htm