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Home > Minerva > Cataloging > How To's > Eliminate Duplicate Bib Records

How To Eliminate Duplicate Bib Records

  1. If you encounter multiple bib records that obviously represent the same edition, move all item records to the best bib record and delete the other bib records.
  2. When determining whether bib records represent the same edition of a work, accept as equivalent those editions whose records exhibit any of these characteristics:
    • 001 OCLC Numbers are present in each, and they identical
    • 020 ISBNs are present in each, and they are identical
    • 100 Author, 245 Title, 260 Imprint, 300 Collation are identical save for minor typographical variations (differing abbreviations, punctuation, etc) and ISBN, LCCN or OCLC number do not contradict a match.
    • 010 LCCN is present in each, and they are identical excluding trailing revision text, e.g. "//R62"; three of the following are present and identical: 100, 245, 260, 300; no other evidence in either record suggests that the records are NOT for the same edition.
  3. In selecting the best bib record, prefer a full and complete LC record or OCLC record. Failing that, prefer the fullest record available. ISBN is important as a matching point for batch loading of the records of incoming libraries. If ISBN (MARC 020) is not in the fullest record, but is present in another record for what you are certain represents the same edition, add it to the retained record.
  4. Use the "tents" icon in GUI Cat to add 3-character location values to the good bib record corresponding to each of the libraries whose items were moved.
  5. If access points such as subject headings and substantive general notes are present in a bib record about to be discarded, but are absent in the new master record, they should be moved into the new master record before deleting the old bib record.The same is true for 050 and 082 fields.
  6. It is the responsibility of libraries who supplied brief and incomplete bibliographic records that have become established as false unique bibs within the Minerva database to review such bibs, to merge them with better bibs if possible, and otherwise to enhance them with more complete information and match points (ISBN, ISSN, LCCN).

Make a systematic effort to review records identified by the system administrator as likely to represent false-unique titles within the database. These are generally records that lack ISBN and LCCN and therefore could not have merged on any other bib record during loading. In most cases, the system administrator will have created a Review File of such records, with a name like "Check These: XYZ Library Records with no nums".