Archive for September, 2012

Merging MARC record question from a customer

Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

Can you advise how to merge marc records?

If you think that your records could be better quality by comparing it to what we have, you can do an Alliance Recon.  Go to Catalog Tab, Update Titles, and Recon Subtab.  You can always do the default of only brief records since these do not have any subjects in the record.  However, if you do the All library records, any subjects that you have entered that are not in the 690s fields will be replaced be what we have on file.   Ours are usually better unless there is a dedicated cataloger that puts in special subjects for your curriculum.

Next create a resource list called duplicates.

After that you can see what records have duplicate standard numbers which is a good start. Go to Catalog Tab, Update Titles, and Recon Subtab to find the titles.  View the titles that were found and add them to the Duplicates resource list.  (You can go back and forth to the report easily be clicking on the Job Summary breadcrumb that is under the word Catalog in the Tab menu.)  

After you are done, go to the resource list and select Duplicated title for each entry of one of the titles.  Select “View these Duplicates” from the “I want to” dropdown menu.  Choose which is the best title and click merge.  You can then remove this title from the resource list and go to the next one.

 If you come across any titles that are duplicates that may have different standard numbers, just add them to the Duplicates resource list.

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Destiny User’s ToDo List

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

1.        Are you on the latest edition of Destiny?

  Follett-hosted Destiny users do not need to worry about this.  For others, you are not getting the most out of Destiny and it is free with current support. 

2. Is your Destiny syncing with your school network where you can email overdue notices using the schools SMTP server.

  You can automate the notification process so that you do not have to worry about making the time to send out overdues. 

3. Is your patron database being automatically updated from your institution’s database using the LDAP server? 

 Why manage your patron’s login when the school’s network already does this? 

4. Do all your patrons have logins and can access the social media component of Destiny called MyQuest?

Let’s get the students focusing on the BOOK and not the FACE.

5. Have you set up your One Search with databases that support your program?

See my earlier post on some that I recommend.

6. Have you purchased any Follett eBooks that integrate directly into Destiny?

 If you like, I can see what eBooks that we have which match what you have in your collection.  Email me a list of your ISBNs of your books and I will get the list of eBooks to you.

7. Have you shared your records with other schools and accessed other schools records when adding titles using Z39.50 interface?

  Please feel free to contact me to get the names of the schools sharing and to tell you how you can do the same. 

8. Have you tied your Destiny with our Titlewave website which can give you a free collection analysis? 

 After you do your first analysis, the process is just a click of a button in Destiny and again it is free. 

9. Have you added any digital resources to your collection and placed them under the digital resource tab? 

Digital Resources can allow you to identify materials that should not come up in your  regular Title search tab, but have their own section.  If you do not have many that you think qualify for this tab, you may want to separate them and do not allow patrons to see this tab under access levels. 

10    Have you recently gone through all the access levels to make sure that all users can get access to what they need? 

With each update, there are new options for patrons in the access level.  The default may not suit the needs of your school

 

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