Why do I get these old GPO records?

Written by Joan on February 10, 2016. Posted in Blog

Why do I get these old records?

If your library receives GPO records from us via one of our subscription services or the Catalog Record Distribution Project (CRDP), you may have wondered from time to time why examples of cataloging for fairly old titles arrive in what would seem to be a current cataloging service. The reason is that, in addition to creating new catalog records, GPO also often has occasion to update older records. One thing we see quite often is new cataloging for old titles that have become available online. When these new records are created for the online version, GPO staff normally updates existing records for tangible versions of the titles to include fields that link the tangible version records to the new online version records. The files Marcive receives each month as the source for our GPO cataloging services include records that have been created by GPO in the previous month as well as records that have been updated. When the time comes to select a library’s records, we choose all of the records that match your criteria; age is not normally a concern.

If you get only new records from us, there usually won’t be too many of these, but if you get changed records as well there could be quite a few at times.

Sometimes these older records are useful and may fill gaps in your catalog, but often they are a distraction. Perhaps you already have cataloged the titles in question, or have withdrawn them from your collection. Either way, the arrival of these records can cause some extra work.

If older records are causing problems for you, it is possible for us to filter them out for you. Simply contact us and ask that records for older tangible titles be excluded from your files in the future, and let us know how old is too old. Most libraries requesting this exclusion have us exclude records for titles from five or more years ago, but the choice is yours.

Do you wonder about some of the records you get or don’t get through your Marcive GPO cataloging service? Whether you get our profiled record services or Documents Without Shelves, or participate in the CRDP, don’t hesitate to ask us about it. We’ll be glad to look into what you are getting and make adjustments that should help, or explain what is happening so that you can decide how you want to handle it.

Written by Jim Noël, MLS
2/9/2016

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