[DCRM-L] FW: early printed books : yikes

Sat Apr 7 13:32:05 MDT 2018

Hello, I’m writing to you at the recommendation of Merrilee Proffitt.  Rare materials catalogers have identified a problematic situation which appears to have resulted from a batch operation; apologies for not writing directly in January when this was first discovered, but Jackie Dooley has been an active member of our DCRM listserv, and we didn’t realize that she had already retired.  If you page down to the bottom of this admittedly long thread, you will see that the abbreviation “col.” has been expanded across the board to “color”.  Unfortunately, special collections catalogers frequently use this abbreviation for “column” particularly in the 300 $a.  This morning, I ran a command search in Connexion:
p3:color and li:hhg/1200-1830
just to see what our current Houghton situation is, and in fact, quite a few problems have been caused.  I’ve copied to the DCRM list, in case others may have run more systematic tests: Is there any way to reverse this batch process, particularly for the 300 $a?  I see that some of the records retain their “col.” in 500 notes where the context might be misleading, so the batch appears to have been quite sophisticated.  Perhaps one more tweak?  I copy the short sample record # 612621906 below (with the incorrectly expanded “color” highlighted in blue) for your reference.  In the current environment where IRs are no longer retained, you can understand where this change could be somewhat catastrophic for earlier materials, particularly incunables.
Thank you, andrea
--
(Ms.) Andrea Cawelti
Ward Music Cataloger
Houghton Library
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA  02138

Phone: (617) 998-5259
FAX: (617) 495-1376
E-mail: cawelti at fas.harvard.edu<mailto:cawelti at fas.harvard.edu>

040  HHG ǂb eng ǂc HHG ǂd OCLCO ǂd OCLCQ
090  ǂb
049  HHGG
1001 Cartwright, Thomas, ǂd 1535-1603.
24510Commentarii succincti & dilucidi in Proverbia Salomonis. ǂb Quibus adhibita est praefatio Johannis Polyandri.
260  Amstelrodami, ǂb sumptibus Henrici Laurentii, ǂc 1638.
300  pages 8, color 1333, pages (18). ǂc sm. 4to
336  text ǂb txt ǂ2 rdacontent
337  unmediated ǂb n ǂ2 rdamedia
338  volume ǂb nc ǂ2 rdacarrier

From: Proffitt,Merrilee [mailto:proffitm at oclc.org]
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2018 1:19 PM
To: Cawelti, Andrea
Subject: RE: FW: early printed books : yikes

Hi,

This sort of issue is best addressed on the OCLC-cat list or by an email to support at oclc.org<mailto:support at oclc.org>.

Thanks,

Merrilee

Merrilee Proffitt, Senior Program Officer
OCLC Research

From: Cawelti, Andrea [mailto:cawelti at fas.harvard.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2018 10:40 AM
To: Proffitt,Merrilee <proffitm at oclc.org<mailto:proffitm at oclc.org>>
Subject: [External] FW: FW: early printed books : yikes

Hi, I see that you have taken over for Jackie Dooley--hope that perhaps some action may be taken on this problem?
Thanks, andrea

-----Original Message-----
From: Cawelti, Andrea
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2018 1:38 PM
To: 'dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu'; Dooley,Jackie (dooleyj at oclc.org<mailto:dooleyj at oclc.org>)
Cc: Isaac, Linda
Subject: Re: FW: early printed books : yikes

Has anyone seen any action on this column/color problem in Connection? I just ran a search to follow up and don't see any systematic fix. Any thoughts on how we might be able to reverse this? I cannot think of any instances where column is in fact equal to color :) Thoughts?
--
(Ms.) Andrea Cawelti
Ward Music Cataloger
Houghton Library
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA  02138

Phone: (617) 998-5259
FAX: (617) 495-1376
E-mail: cawelti at fas.harvard.edu<mailto:cawelti at fas.harvard.edu>

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2018 14:45:18 -0500
From: Erin Blake <erin.blake.folger at gmail.com<mailto:erin.blake.folger at gmail.com>>
To: "DCRM Users' Group" <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>>
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] FW: early printed books : yikes
Message-ID:
<CAFbkfadLmSpWYOGaUaiXo-VFTUmZM5rzqLi9Aku4Ss8e12h9KQ at mail.gmail.com<mailto:CAFbkfadLmSpWYOGaUaiXo-VFTUmZM5rzqLi9Aku4Ss8e12h9KQ at mail.gmail.com>>
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Thanks for the heads-up, and for the reassurance that OCLC Quality Control fixed it quickly after it was discovered.

They were also quick to fix the rare book records that were changed to microfilm records back in 2013 (see https://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/2013-November/003322.html<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__listserver.lib.byu.edu_pipermail_dcrm-2Dl_2013-2DNovember_003322.html&d=DwMF-g&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=wsMmVDGMcGIyE3TaCDwhr4fiu-X5jX8-rBYzBm44TZ8&m=dAMuUeXkiToZRDzZGNkFiXoeBT2TEFfzfqjjgEocs-o&s=hD7DLDUJVh-0cMEakYhJ5PGMSMDZr5Jnzd-llweHars&e=>
for a trip down memory lane).

Erin.

________

Erin C. Blake, Ph.D. | Head of Collection Information Services | Folger Shakespeare Library | 201 E. Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC, 20003 | eblake at folger.edu<mailto:eblake at folger.edu> | office tel. +1 202-675-0323

On Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 10:32 AM, Deborah J. Leslie <DJLeslie at folger.edu<mailto:DJLeslie at folger.edu>>
wrote:

> Let me add my thanks for bringing this up. In my fantasy world,
> significant algorithms OCLC uses to "update" descriptive cataloging
> data would be shared in advance with important stakeholders, to help
> prevent mistakes like this one. At least they can be fixed after the fact.
>
>
>
> Deborah J. Leslie | Folger Shakespeare Library | djleslie at folger.edu<mailto:djleslie at folger.edu> |
>
>
>
> *From:* DCRM-L [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] *On Behalf Of
> *Matthew C. Haugen
> *Sent:* Friday, 23 February, 2018 10:21
> *To:* DCRM Users' Group
> *Subject:* Re: [DCRM-L] FW: early printed books : yikes
>
>
>
> Thanks for sharing this! It reminds me of a similar phenomenon I
> noticed a couple years ago and reported to OCLC Quality Control.
>
>
>
> It appears OCLC went about converting Latin abbrevations [s.l.],
> [s.n.], and [n.d.] to the RDA phrases such as "place of publication
> not identified," but in some cases, other initialisms in place or
> publisher names containing S. L., S. N., or N. D also got swept up in the change:
>
>
> #71309469
> Lemberg : ?b Druck des S. L. Flecker, ?c 1862.
>
> Lemberg : ?b Druck des Place of publication not identified Flecker, ?c
> 1862.
>
> #874816261
> New York ; ?a Oxford : ?b Oxford University Press for the U.N.D.P, ?c
> 1992.
>
> New York ; ?a Oxford : ?b Oxford University Press for the U.date of
> publication not identifiedP, ?c 1992.
>
> #874495167
> Karnal : ?b N.D.R.I., ?c 1972.
> Karnal : ?b Date of publication not identifiedR.I., ?c 1972.
>
>
>
> #2252304
>
> Bismarck, N.D. : ?b Dept. of Agriculture.
>
> Bismarck, date of publication not identified : ?b Dept. of Agriculture.
>
>
>
> It appears OCLC QC has taken action to fix these and other instances
> not long after I reported them, and I don't know how widespread the
> problem was to begin with. But keep an eye out in case any have
> slipped through OCLC's algorithms or into your local institutions' catalogs.
>
>
>
> Matt
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 3:32 PM, Andrews, Susan <susan.andrews at ubc.ca<mailto:susan.andrews at ubc.ca>>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Deborah J. Leslie [mailto:DJLeslie at FOLGER.edu]
> *Sent:* February-05-18 7:14 AM
> Dear
>
>
>
> *Subject:* FW: early printed books : yikes
>
>
>
> Dear Rare Book people,
>
> First of all my apologies for the delay in passing this on to you. I
> was away on vacation, then got inundated with urgent cataloguing
> issues to deal with when I got back.
>
>
>
> I started to think this e-mail thread was too stale to pass on, but
> you can always delete something you already know all about!
>
> Many if you will be on the OCLC-CAT listserv, so this will be old news.
>
> For others, you might want to read the following, and to check samples
> of your records in OCLC to see if they got affected.
>
>
>
> Best wishes, Sue.
>
>
>
>
>
> *********************************************
>
> *Sue Andrews*
>
> *Principal Cataloguer*
>
> *University of British Columbia Library*
>
> *2198 Health Sciences Mall, Vancouver BC V6T 1Z3
> <https://maps.google.com/?q=2198+Health+Sciences+Mall,+Vancouver+BC+V6<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__maps.google.com_-3Fq-3D2198-2BHealth-2BSciences-2BMall-2C-2BVancouver-2BBC-2BV6&d=DwMF-g&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=wsMmVDGMcGIyE3TaCDwhr4fiu-X5jX8-rBYzBm44TZ8&m=dAMuUeXkiToZRDzZGNkFiXoeBT2TEFfzfqjjgEocs-o&s=XorWT5Rv8ShPq6EfoylYTayNyo3y1DURgiLIu_gmeoQ&e=>
> T+1Z3&entry=gmail&source=g>*
>
> *Tel. 604-822-4995 <(604)%20822-4995> Email: susan.andrews at ubc.ca<mailto:susan.andrews at ubc.ca>
> <susan.andrews at ubc.ca<mailto:susan.andrews at ubc.ca>>*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* OCLC-Cataloging [mailto:OCLC-CAT at OCLCLISTS.ORG
> <OCLC-CAT at OCLCLISTS.ORG><mailto:OCLC-CAT at OCLCLISTS.ORG%20%0b%3e%20%3cOCLC-CAT at OCLCLISTS.ORG%3e>] *On Behalf Of *Bremer,Robert
> *Sent:* January-30-18 1:58 PM
> *To:* OCLC-CAT at OCLCLISTS.ORG<mailto:OCLC-CAT at OCLCLISTS.ORG>
> *Subject:* Re: [OCLC-CAT] early printed books : yikes
>
>
>
> Hello,
>
>
>
> Thank you for letting us know about this issue. We will work on
> getting the needed adjustments made to all the affected bibliographic records.
>
>
>
> Robert Bremer
>
> Senior Consulting Database Specialist
>
> OCLC Metadata Quality
>
>
>
> *From:* OCLC-Cataloging [mailto:OCLC-CAT at OCLCLISTS.ORG
> <OCLC-CAT at OCLCLISTS.ORG><mailto:OCLC-CAT at OCLCLISTS.ORG%20%0b%3e%20%3cOCLC-CAT at OCLCLISTS.ORG%3e>] *On Behalf Of *Andrews, Susan
> *Sent:* Tuesday, January 30, 2018 3:30 PM
> *To:* OCLC-CAT <OCLC-CAT at oclclists.org<mailto:OCLC-CAT at oclclists.org>>
> *Subject:* [OCLC-CAT] early printed books : yikes
>
>
>
> Hi folks,
>
> First of all: sorry if this has been mentioned on this List already!!
>
> I just wanted to alert you (and hopefully some programmer for OCLC!)
> to a problem I discovered yesterday when cataloguing an early printed book.
>
> I always get excited when I have a book with numbered columns (instead
> of pages or leaves) because I get to apply that lovely collation rule
> that talks about the extent of text in terms of columns.
>
> At first when I searched OCLC to find matching copy I was confused by
> 300 fields that looked like there were illustrated versions of my book!
>
> Then I realized that some program had *unhelpfully* expanded ?col.?
> (for
> column) to ?color?. Now to be fair, this might have been the fault
> of a contributing library, but I did a quick search and found that it
> is now quite rampant in the database! It is hard for me to imagine
> that so many libraries modified their local rare book records so dramatically.
>
> Here are some suspicious records to look at:
>
> 82679282 (Berkeley please check your copy)
>
> 367569195 (Brigham Young please check your copy)
>
> 702171855 (Yale please check your copy)
>
> The holding/contributing libraries are very wide-ranging including
> both national libraries, and other major research libraries.
>
>
>
> I hope someone at OCLC has some way to reverse this damage! Specifically
> in 300 ?a?, of course.
>
>
>
> Sue.
>
>
>
> *********************************************
>
> *Sue Andrews*
>
> *Principal Cataloguer*
>
> *University of British Columbia Library*
>
> *2198 Health Sciences Mall, Vancouver BC V6T 1Z3
> <https://maps.google.com/?q=2198+Health+Sciences+Mall,+Vancouver+BC+V6<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__maps.google.com_-3Fq-3D2198-2BHealth-2BSciences-2BMall-2C-2BVancouver-2BBC-2BV6&d=DwMF-g&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=wsMmVDGMcGIyE3TaCDwhr4fiu-X5jX8-rBYzBm44TZ8&m=dAMuUeXkiToZRDzZGNkFiXoeBT2TEFfzfqjjgEocs-o&s=XorWT5Rv8ShPq6EfoylYTayNyo3y1DURgiLIu_gmeoQ&e=>
> T+1Z3&entry=gmail&source=g>*
>
> *Tel. 604-822-4995 <(604)%20822-4995> Email: susan.andrews at ubc.ca<mailto:susan.andrews at ubc.ca>
> <susan.andrews at ubc.ca<mailto:susan.andrews at ubc.ca>>*
>
>
>
> ********************************************************************
>
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>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> --
> Matthew C. Haugen
> Rare Book Cataloger
> 102 Butler Library
> Columbia University Libraries
> E-mail: matthew.haugen at columbia.edu<mailto:matthew.haugen at columbia.edu>
> Phone: 212-851-2451 <(212)%20851-2451>
>
>
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