Merging Duplicate Records

The rules on this page are being considered by the SCRAP committee. Do NOT follow the rules on this page. Please send any feedback to SCRAP.

General Guidelines

When deciding if you should merge two records, follow the guidelines on the page titled When to use a new record.

If a potential duplicate has ISBNs that differ, check to see if the secondary duplicate has other duplicates that do not match your primary record. If these records are meant to be maintained as separate records, contact the assigned branch of the item records to verify which record the ISBNs should be attached to. If there are no additional duplicates, copy the additional ISBNs from the secondary to the primary record. If an OCLC number is in two different records but the description should have a different OCLC number for the title, contact the assigned branch of the item to report the problem and ask them to use a different OCLC number for the title.

Other important information that needs to be verified includes:

• Formats • If graphic novel records are for the same concatenated issues. • If there are special format notes or special supplement notes, such as for interviews or maps.

Merging Records with Multivolume Set Records

When deciding if a title belongs on a multivolume set records, follow the guidelines on the page titled Multiple records vs. single records for series and sets. When merging a record from a single record to a multivolume set record, the call number in the item records should be updated to have a volume number in the volume field that matches the appearance of the volume numbers of the other libraries’ volume designations.