A Batch Solution to the Death Date Problem

A Case Study

Hsianghui Liu-Spencer & Tom LambCarleton College

Northfield, MinnesotaMNIUG October 23, 2012

LC Announcement in 2005/2006

Revised LCRI 22.17

The Library of Congress announced a change in policy about adding death dates to personal name heading and a revision to the LCRI for AACR2 rule 22.17 that allows the option for catalogers to add death dates to personal name headings with open dates.

Armstrong, Neil, 1931-Armstrong, Neil, 1931-2012

100 1 Sagan, Françoise,|d1935-240 10 Garde du coeur.|lEnglish245 14 The heart-keeper /|c[by] Françoise Sagan. 260 New York :|bDutton,|c1968.300 128 p. ;|c21 cm.600 10 Sagan, Françoise,|d1935-600 10 Sagan, Françoise,|d1935-|vAnecdotes.

One Bibliographic Record

010 n 79021390100 1 Sagan, Francoise, |d 1935-400 1 Quoirez, Francoise, |d 1935-

010 n 79021390100 1 Sagan, Francoise, |d 1935-400 1 Quoirez, Francoise, |d 1935-

010 no2011144865100 1 Sagan, Francoise, |d 1935- |tGarde du coeur.|lEnglish

100 1 Sagan, Françoise,|d1935-2004.240 10 Garde du coeur.|lEnglish245 14 The heart-keeper /|c[by] Françoise Sagan. 260 New York :|bDutton,|c1968.300 128 p. ;|c21 cm.600 10 Sagan, Françoise,|d1935-2004.600 10 Sagan, Françoise,|d1935-2004|vAnecdotes.

One Bibliographic Record

010 n 79021390100 1 Sagan, Francoise, |d 1935-2004 400 1 Quoirez, Francoise, |d 1935-2004

010 n 79021390100 1 Sagan, Francoise, |d 1935-2004400 1 Quoirez, Francoise, |d 1935-2004

010 no2011144865100 1 Sagan, Francoise, |d 1935-2004. |tGarde du coeur.|lEnglish

A Name Change in LC Weekly List 2010-05-09

What is the impact to a local database?

Split headings in Bridge Consortium

(Carleton & St. Olaf)

Split headings in other library catalog

Numbers of names changes from 2006-02 to 2012-02?

Source: LC Weekly Lists website

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 120

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000966

373

648

280261

611

361

730

377

581

668

349

2006200720082009201020112012Av-er-age

Average from 2006-02 to 2012-02

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 120

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

2006200720082009201020112012Average

A total of 35,308 names

over six-year period

What do you do?

OCLC-CAT Liserv in Feb, 2012 **13 Responses

Or do you care?

Bridge Consortium Reacts Over the Years

2005/06

LC announcement

**LC weekly lists posted in OCLC site in Feb 2006

2006

Print lists, check local database. Review heading report.

**local editing, coded A in AuthoCode2

2010

Print lists again and write notes on library cards

**Test Kent State DeathFlip Project

2012

The Old Ways That We Did …

Bridge Consortium Reacts Over the Years

2005/06

LC announcement

**LC weekly lists posted in OCLC site in Feb 2006

2006

Print lists, check local database. Review heading report.

**local editing, coded A in AuthoCode2

2010

Print lists again and write notes on library cards

**Test Kent State DeathFlip Project

2012

Carleton starts a case study in Feb

**March: LC’s decision on RDA**June~Aug: RDA authority records

Our Goal

1. Not all identified headings require updating.2. Identified headings may present unique challenges

requiring unique approaches:• Heading for 1xx and 7xx• Heading for 6xx subject• Author/Title added entry & Uniform Title (240)

• Identify headings in our system that appear in the LC Weekly Closed Dates list and update those headings as needed.

We Need to Be Aware:

New Tools That We Used

http://datatoolbar.com/

Master List from LC

Weekly Lists(spreadsheet)

Run Python script

Millennium AF Master

list (spreadsheet

)

List of Matching LCCN

Sort and

compare data

Review and determine

next (manual?)

steps

Review and determine

next (manual?)

steps

1. Batch search in Connexion by LCCN

2. Run macro adding 4xx, 667, 949

3. Export to Millennium

Simple authors solely

lacking death dates

Personal names as subjects (600s)

Authors with

irregular date

formats

Day One

Observe the blind references and let

AACP work its magic

Day Two

Check heading report in

Millennium

Check Updated Bib Heading as well as near-match,

duplicate AF, etc.

Blind references – mostly need to create a different

4xx. So, it will flip the following day

Day Three

Make sure no more blind references

Don’t forget subjects (6xx) and irregular

date formats (1xx, 7xx)

Formulae

• Remove period - =LEFT(E5,LEN(E5)-1)

Excel Spreadsheets 1

• Compare cells - =(N5=P5) returns TRUE or FALSE

• Sort spreadsheet by cell color

• Sort by final digit - =RIGHT(E6,1)

A sample of the resulting spreadsheet

A blind reference

The Numbers

Data Sources Numbers of Headings Percentage

LC weekly list (2006-02~2012-02)

35,308

Millennium AF list up to 2012-02 (including everything)

636,954+

A list generated through script on 2012-03

16,859

Identify duplicate headings from the spreadsheet (both for main heading and subject)

2,716

An interesting outcome (16,859-2,716)

14,134 14,134/35,208=40%

An average cataloger at Carleton would have caught and manually updated, approximately

600 600/14,134=4.3%

March April May Jun July Aug 0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

25

1700

75

1150

7036

475

Name headings upload:

A Batch Load from Connexion to Millennium

60%

• Blind references on Day 2--13% to fix

• Total bib updated through AACP: 42,929+

• Average for bib attached for each heading: 4~6 bib per AF (1 minims and 110 maximum)

A Statistics View (16,859 matching names)

Fixed prior to 2012-0220%

1xx/7xx a batch process cycle60%

Date format not in YYYY3%

6xx through a semi-manual process17%

**Differences – 0.06%, 111 headings

Are we there yet??

Complete the cycle. We had mainly dealt with 1xx/7xx. And 6xx.

But what about author/title added entry (240)?

100 1 Sagan, Françoise,|d1935-2004.240 10 Garde du coeur.|lEnglish245 14 The heart-keeper /|c[by] Françoise Sagan. 260 New York :|bDutton,|c1968.300 128 p. ;|c21 cm.600 10 Sagan, Françoise,|d1935-2004.600 10 Sagan, Françoise,|d1935-2004|vAnecdotes.

One Bibliographic Record

010 n 79021390100 1 Sagan, Francoise, |d 1935-2004 400 19 Sagan, Francoise, |d 1935-

010 n 79021390100 1 Sagan, Francoise, |d 1935-2004400 19 Sagan, Francoise, |d 1935-

010 no2011144865100 1 Sagan, Francoise, |d 1935- |tGarde du coeur.|lEnglish

Lessons Learned• Saving time?

• Understanding the process of AACP in Millennium

• Subject template in Millennium load table: 949 *atab=asub

• Making sure to keep up with heading reports and clear up the space for loading more records

• Check the setting for AACP: Millennium III manual: #107824 Set this option to YES to enable the application of name

authority record updates to name-title bibliographic headings

The Plan to Move Forward• Develop a workflow to maintain updated death dates based on what we

learned

• Share the harvested data from LC Closed Dates Project and make it available in a spreadsheets format

http://bit.ly/PQMkBU

Thanks Go To

Kathy Blough St. Olaf Cataloger

Jason CohnStudent Worker in Carleton Archives

Nat WilsonDigital Archivist & Technology Coordinator, Carleton College

Mark EhlertCoordinator of Digitization, Cataloging & Metadata Education, Minitex

Credits Also Go To

Susanne Nevin St. Olaf Cataloger

Sue ImsCarleton College Cataloger

JoEllen LaPrade St. Olaf Cataloger

Thank you!

Tom Lamb tlamb@carleton.eduHsianghui Liu-Spencer hliuspen@carleton.edu