Withdrawal overview

Department: Metadata Services

rev 9 September 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of key factors in doing withdrawals. This is not a step-by-step procedure.

Overview: This overview is provided to convey key information about doing withdrawals to help insure that important steps are not overlooked. It applies when an item is being removed from the collection of either the Christopher Center or the Law Library. It does not apply to faculty-owned items put on course reserve.

Required Knowledge/Skills: Sierra, OCLC Connexion

Equipment/Supplies: Access to Sierra, OCLC Connexion

Key Steps to Remember

1. ASRS

a. Records must be pulled from the ASRS database before they are removed from Sierra. It is not enough to request the item from the ASRS; you must run the “Remove from ASRS” program in Sierra, before deleting the item record. The ASRS software uses the barcode to remove the record in the ASRS database.
b. CLR circulation staff may or may not be able to assist with large ASRS removal/withdrawal projects. Each library should be prepared to devote Technical Services staff to removing items from bins for large projects. Contact the ASRS manager (currently Sidney Findley, x5129) before starting a large project.
c. CLR circulation staff is not responsible for the processing or discard of withdrawn materials, and should not be asked to do so.


2. Item Records in Sierra

a. Item records can be deleted when the physical item is no longer part of our collection.
b. A manual count of items withdrawn must be kept at the time of withdrawal, if the count is needed for statistical reports to outside agencies.
c. Effective August 2015, the bibliographic record in Sierra must be suppressed and retained temporarily, even if all the items have been withdrawn. See Bibliographic Records below.
d. If you are deleting holdings for only one campus library, and the other campus library still has item records attached to the bib, 049 field should be edited to reflect only the symbol of the holding library. While it is helpful to edit the bib level location field to reflect the change as well, it is not essential. This field will be updated when the system administrator runs the Links Maintenance program.


3. Bibliographic Records in Sierra

a. Effective 4 August 2015, if the bibliographic record is in Summon, it should not be deleted from Sierra until after it is deleted from Summon. Deletes will be sent to Summon weekly or monthly.
b. If the record is to be deleted from Sierra after it is deleted from Summon, Bcode3 field should be changed to d in Sierra. This will also suppress the record from public view (effective September 11, 2015).
c. If you want to retain the record for the withdrawn title in Sierra permanently, change the Bcode3 to w. It will be deleted from Summon, but retained as a suppressed record in Sierra. Please use the w code sparingly, so that we don’t have a number of records for withdrawn materials in the system causing confusion.
d. When we fail to overlay on a temporary bib record, it is better to delete the newly created record (since it won’t be in Summon) and overlay correctly
on the temp bib. If you delete it the original Sierra record, as was our past practice, it will remain in Summon with a bad link until the next
quarterly or biannual upgrade, even though the new record will be loaded sooner.


4. OCLC holdings

a. Holdings should be deleted from OCLC when all items for a title are withdrawn, but before removing the record from Sierra. This allows you to copy and paste the OCLC number from the Sierra record into OCLC for easy searching.


5. Summon

a. Monthly (or more often) the system administrator or her designee will create a list of all bibliographic records with Bcode3=d.
b. The list will be sent to the Summon Update file. It will take about a week for the records to be removed from Summon.
c. As a safety check, the system administrator may export the OCLC numbers from the list to OCLC to batch delete our holdings from OCLC. This should not
be the default process for removing OCLC holdings, unless arrangements have made in advance for a batch delete project.
d. When we are sure the records have been removed from Summon (usually by the next week), the system administrator will batch delete the bibliographic records from Sierra.
e.The system administrator will do a full update of our Sierra database in Summon two or three times a year, to catch anything missed by our ongoing processes.


6. Order records in Sierra

a. Order records made by mistake should be coded for deletion as soon as the mistake is discovered.
   i. Put a “d” in the retention code field, and an “n” in the BCode3 field in the bibliographic record. Note: This is the ONLY time the “d” code is used in order records.
   ii. The system administrator will be batch delete order records coded for deletion every semester.
b. Order records for firm orders with payment data should never be coded for deletion or archiving.
   i. Firm order records will be retained in the system for three fiscal years and then archived as part of our normal archiving process.
   ii. If you code the record for archiving, it may stay in the system longer than needed, since the order record update date is used in determining which records to archive.
c. Order records for cancelled firm orders should never be coded for deletion or archiving.
   i. Cancelled firm orders are retained in the system for one year and then archived as part of our normal archiving process.
   ii. If you code the record for archiving, it may stay in the system longer than needed, since the update date is used in determining which records to archive.
d. Order records for cancelled or ceased serials, standing orders, or other ongoing publications should be coded for archiving an “a” in the Retention Code field.
   i. The records will be retained in the system for three fiscal years after the last update date and then archived as part of our normal archiving process.
   ii. If you want to retain the payment information in the system longer than three years, put the code “r” in the Retention Code field. Periodically, you will be asked to review records coded this way to see if they are   still needed in the system