MULS Blog

Since February, over 60 institutions in the MINITEX region have ordered a free OCLC Local Holdings Offline Product (LHOP) file. [end test]

Since February, over 60 institutions in the MINITEX region have ordered a free OCLC Local Holdings Offline Product (LHOP) file. Each file provides a complete list of the library’s Local Holdings Records (LHRs) in OCLC, which the library can download and use for a number of purposes. The file could be formatted and arranged to provide a printed list of serials, or to use as an online database of holdings information, supplementing the library catalog.

Of course, one of the most likely uses for the file is to make sure that holdings records in OCLC are accurate and ‘in sync’ with your current holdings. Not only can you check to see that each item in your catalog has the proper holdings in OCLC, you can discover if any items you’ve withdrawn are still lurking in the OCLC system, or if items you’ve added locally are included in your OCLC LHRs. Thirteen of the libraries that ordered an LHOP file have already ordered another, suggesting that they used the file to update holdings and then ordered another version to see (and perhaps to double-check) the updated LHRs.

If your library has ordered a Local Holdings Offline Product, we’d like to hear about how you are using it. Are you using it to update LHRs in OCLC? What else might you do with this information? Did you find any surprises in the file?

Write a comment to this post and let us know what you've done - or plan to do - with your LHOP file.

Posted by linto001 at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As we've noted before, staff members at many MULS libraries have received or want to make use of the new OCLC Local Holdings Offline Product (LHOP), which provides a file of an individual library's current Local Holdings Records in OCLC. One potential stumbling block has been the fact that the LHOP file OCLC generates is a tab delimited file, making it, on the one hand, flexible for a variety of purposes and, on the other hand, something which isn’t particularly easy to work with in its raw form.

OCLC provides instructions on how to convert the tab-delimited file to an Excel spreadsheet, but some libraries may find that the spreadsheet is awkward to read or work with. (For example, title information is in column B, while holdings data is in column H or O, or even R and beyond.) The MINITEX MULS staff is working with our IT staff to create a new tool that makes LHOP data easier to read and use. We have a first version currently available, and we are already working on a first set of minor improvements.

The OCLC Holdings Importer utility can produce a list of a library's holdings that simplifies the amount of data in each entry and presents it in format that we think is easier to read than a straight spreadsheet or table. Instead of using MS Excel, this process imports the data file into MS Access, and then allows you to choose from three different reports to create an output you can use.

1) Title list - this report includes just the most basic information: Title, Place of publication, Location and Holdings for each item.

2) Summary entry - this report has somewhat more information for each item, adding the OCLC record number and the ISBN/ISSN to the info in the titles list. The format also gives each entry a bit more space on the page, making it easier to read.

3) Detailed entry - this report includes all of the above information, and also shows coded fields for the Lending and Reproduction status of the item and a date field that indicates when the LHR was last updated.  We expect that this report would be useful primarily to library staff.

While we certainly hope this utility will be helpful, we know it can be improved.  As one example, all these reports are currently organized by title.  We are working on an enhancement that will allow users to select alternative sorting schemes.  We also expect that some library staff members may find these forms do not meet all their specific needs.  We encourage staff from those libraries to work with MINITEX and their local IT staff to build on these examples and to create other forms of these reports, which we will share with the rest of our regional community.

And finally, we are aware of efforts in other parts of the US to develop other ways to work with the LHOP files, and we will keep you posted regarding those efforts on the MULS blog.  One option is to work with MS Word, using tools for merging form letters to organize and label LHOP data.  This method could even add html tags for online display.

Posted by linto001 at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Staff at several libraries in our region have ordered Local Holdings Offline Products, and we've asked elsewhere what they plan to do with this data.  Here's another piece of the picture:

How do we present the LHOP file data?

The OCLC Quick Reference Guide to the LHOP  includes a  brief description about how to convert the tab-delimited LHOP file into an Excel spreadsheet.  But it doesn't seem to me that the spreadsheet is a very convenient form to read the holdings information; title info is in column B, while holdings data is in column H or O, or even R and beyond.

Library staff get to decide which of these fields are useful and how to present them.   Which fields do you actually want to include in any file or printout you'll use?  Is the tab-delimited file useful as it is, or do you need to edit it before you can actually use it?

With some help from our MINITEX IT crew, we are looking at the possibility of creating a way to manipulate the file into some pre-set forms, more like the old printouts we used to get from OCLC.  Of course, this raises another set of questions: 

• If it were possible to turn the LHOP file into a simpler form of holdings (for example, leaving out some of the coded data) would you want to do that? 

• If you could pick the parts of the LHOP record that you wanted to see in a modified product, what fields would be useful to you?  There could be different elements for different purposes; please indicate what you'd want to do with the modified file.

We hope you'll join in on this thread to share your ideas.  We'll see what MINITEX can do to help you make these files work for you and your library, and to share our experiences with each other. 

And hey, if you're ahead of us and have already modified your LHOP file, let us know what you did.  Maybe you'll be a pioneer, blazing trails for the rest of us!

Posted by linto001 at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the short time since Local Holdings Offline Products (LHOP) have been available, over 40 libraries in the MINITEX region have ordered and received a file of their local holdings information in OCLC.  We know some of the ways that libraries have used this information in the past, but LHOP are different.

The new files include a variety of information from the MARC Local Holdings Record (LHR).  Each library gets the same file with the same data elements, but staff are also free to manipulate the file, select the information they want, and present it in whatever format they think will be most useful. 

The OCLC site has a Quick Reference Guide to the LHOP which can help staff at libraries that haven't yet ordered one to see what fields are included in the file.  Take a look and let us know, 

How could a file with this kind of data help you?

If your library ordered a LHOP file, what are you hoping to do with it?  Are you creating tools for your patrons, or are you planning to have staff use the data internally?  Maybe both.   Share your ideas with all of us about how this information can help us serve our users.

Posted by linto001 at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OCLC has announced a new session of the Local Holdings User Group virtual meeting that was held on February 7th.  

This new session is intended as a make-up for staff at libraries that registered for the 2/7 session but were not able to participate due to the technical difficulties that arose with the audio portion of the meeting.  If you signed up for the original session and were not able to participate, you are welcome to attend this webinar/meeting, which will take place on the afternoon of 3/6.  By now, you should have received information from OCLC regarding this make-up meeting.  If you are among these libraries and have not received information you need, please contact the MINITEX MULS office.

If staff at your library did not sign up for the original February 7th meeting, we still encourage you to participate, but you will need a little more patience.  The new Local Holdings User Group virtual meeting will be recorded, and everyone will be able to listen at their own convenience once the recording is made available. 

 And lastly, we continue to encourage anyone who has questions or wants to share ideas about the issues discussed at the virtual meeting to follow the thread of our discussion entry on the MULS blog.  We'd like to know what you think.

Posted by linto001 at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OCLC has created a new Local Holdings Offline Product (LHOP).  For a general discussion of this new product see the blog entry OCLC Local Holdings Offline Product now available.

A Quick Reference guide is available on the OCLC website and covers the order process, how to download the file, and information on how to import the file into Microsoft Office Excel.

Individual libraries can order a file of their own holdings in WorldCat from the OCLC website.  The file will be current up to the day it is run, and you will be notified when the file is ready. 

Once produced, the tab delimited file will be available for download from the Product Services Web and can be imported into a spreadsheet, table or database.  Exact procedures may vary depending on your software package. If your library has more than 20,000 local holdings records, multiple files will be provided with up to 20,000 records in each file. There is no charge for this report. 

All LHOP files will contain the same data elements in a tab-delimited file.  Below is a brief list of the data elements that will be include in the file.

From the bibliographic record:

OCLC Number
Title of Item from the bibliographic record (245 $a)
ISBN/ISSN (020 $a or 022 $a) - the data will be preceded by a label identifying it as either an ISSN or ISBN
Place of Publication (260 $a & $b)
BLvL - code from the Bibliographic Level element in the bibliographic record
Form - Code from the Form of Item element in the bibliographic record
SrTp - Code from the Type of Serials element in the bibliographic record

From the Local Holdings record

LHR Summary - Note: There is only one summary per bibliographic record per institution regardless of the number of LHRs that the library has attached to that record.  If a library has multiple LHRs attached to a single bibliographic record each LHR will appear on a separate row and the summary field will be repeated in each row.

LHR Leader – Note: Each element from the leader will be preceded by label that identifies the item. Data will always appear in the same column for all LHRs in the file.

LHR 007 – Codes from the Physical Description field.
LHR 008 - Codes from the Fixed-Length Data Elements General Information . The complete set of 32 characters from the 008 will be included.

For ease of sorting, in addition to being included in the complete 008 field, the Lending (008/20) & Reproduction (008/21) policy codes and the Date of report (008/26-31) will be broken out into separate columns.

LHR 852 (Location) – The field tag, indicators, and all subfields will be included as they appear in the LHR at the time the data was extracted.  Subfield delimiters will appear as ‘$’

Holdings Information – Fields from the LHR that describe the library’s holdings including Electronic Location (856) and Holdings Data (853-878).  Each field will be in a separate cell and will include the field tag, indicators, and all subfields from the field.  Repeatable fields will appear in separate cells (for example if there are two 863 fields each 863 field will appear in a separate cell within the file). Subfield delimiters will appear as ‘$’ Position of the data will be dependent of the fields that are contained within the LHR.

Posted by linto001 at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OCLC has announced the availability of a new Local Holdings Offline Product (LHOP), available to any library with Local Holdings Records in OCLC. 

This new product is the first successor to the old Serials Union List Offline Products (SULOPs) - what some libraries referred to as their "MULS printouts" -  that many of our libraries used to monitor their holdings in OCLC or to provide printed lists of periodical holdings info to their staff and patrons.  While there are many differences between the old SULOP products and the new LHOP, two features stand out as distinct improvements:

1)  A library can order them at anytime throughout the year -- unlike the old SULOPs, which could only be ordered on a set, semi-annual cycle.

2)  THERE IS NO CHARGE FOR THIS PRODUCT!

The other major change in the LHOP product is that OCLC will supply the library with a standard electronic, tab-delimited file of the holdings data, which the library can configure, format and publish in whatever form it wishes.  The same file could be used to create a printed table the library staff uses to compare their Local Holdings Records in OCLC with the holdings data in their local ILS, and could also be used to create a searchable database of serials information for their web page.  Each library, rather than receiving a print list or a set of microfiche in a predetermined format, can decide how to arrange and present their holdings data.  At the same time, this increased flexibility may require additional support from the library's IT staff to translate the file into a form the library finds useful.

There are some other differences between the old SULOP output and the new LHOP file.  In the past, a library could select certain fields to be included in the SULOP output; now all LHOP files will have the same data elements and it will be up to the libraries to decide whether and how to display the data.  Previously, some libraries had created combined lists showing all the holdings for a group of libraries; the LHOP is currently limited to providing the holdings of a single library.  Creating a shared list now would be a project for the libraries' IT staff involving multiple LHOP files.

See the blog entry Local Holdings Offline Product details for more information about what's included in the LHOP file, and links to a Quick Reference guide and the LHOP online order form.

If you have further questions about how the new Local Holdings Offline Product could be useful to your library, or questions about the ordering process, please feel free to contact the MINTEX/MULS office and speak with Dave Linton or Cecelia Boone.

Posted by linto001 at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Many libraries are interested in OCLC Local Holdings – what we used to call ‘MULS holdings’ – but can't make it to ALA's Midwinter or Annual Conference to attend a User Group Meeting.  This year, OCLC has planned a special virtual meeting to bring information directly to staff members whose jobs are affected by Local Holdings data.

Local Holdings User Group virtual meeting

Date: Thursday, February 7, 2008
Time: 1 – 2 p.m. CST
Registration:   http://www.oclc.org/info/localholdings/

Cost:   FREE

Guest speakers will include:

o        Jennifer Kuehn, Ohio State University, who will present her library’s results after taking advantage of Local Holdings Records to set copy/loan bytes for materials in OSU's special collections.

o        Judy Murran, OCLC, who will talk about batch updating of Local Holdings Records

o        Christa Starck, OCLC, who will discuss deflection and the role played by copy/loan bytes in Local Holdings Records

We'll be particularly interested in the discussion of batch updating of Local Holdings Records (LHRs) since a number of libraries in the MINITEX region are interested in exploring this method of updating their LHRs. 

Please contact Dave Linton or Cec Boone in the MINITEX MULS office with any questions you have about the session. 

Posted by linto001 at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently, Myrtle Meyers from OCLC sent out a message to OCLC networks indicating that progress is being made on developing a new Local Holdings Offline Product. While there is still no firm date for release of the new product, we were able to review a sample output file, and OCLC is working on the ordering and production processes that would allow libraries to order and receive files of their Local Holdings data.

The new files don't replace all aspects of the old SULOP products, and we are hopeful that in time, other flexibility may be added.  At the same time, these developments are encouraging, and we are continuing to make suggestions and give feedback  to OCLC to help them create a useful product for our members.  Keep in touch with the MULS blog or watch for announcements from OCLC for further developments. We hope to hear more – especially a release date – in early 2008.

Posted by linto001 at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)