1. Our internal Con Library Tech Services LibGuide is now open to anyone with the link, and I hope you may find some useful tidbits of info. This is perpetually in progress, so please excuse placeholders! https://libguides.oberlin.edu/con-tech-services (Kim Fixx maintains our extensive Preparations manual separately.)
2. A monthly new titles list for the Con Library is available the first week of each month. You can find them in our Box folder, Conservatory Library New Titles Lists. The folder and files are set to be easily shared.
3. Last but certainly not least, I am delighted to report that we finished a major cleanup project (12,200 items!). The Con Library had an old practice of using one big (but vague) record for complete or collected works by one composer or for large monographic series. These sets or series also had (have) individual bibliographic and item records for each component volume. The dysfunctional umbrella records had ‘extra’ item records with a status of “check shelf,” with no real-time availability.
Back in November of 2018, though the amazing power of Sierra’s Create Lists, we identified 6,104 item records with this “check shelf” status. For each, we confirmed the existence of the ‘real’ item in OBIS and corrected its call number, then deleted the corresponding “check shelf” item. Once each set/series was all finished, we removed OCLC holdings from the set and deleted or suppressed that record. As a bonus, funny-looking records routed to me for troubleshooting were treated to full correction/enhancement in WorldCat and updated in OBIS as well, and sets or series lacking analytic records for some volumes were fully analyzed. On December 23, 2021, the very last check-shelf item was removed, and every corresponding live item record is correct. Many thanks are due to Anne Sprague (retired), who did a lot of the initial cleanup, and to Faith Hoffman, who touched literally thousands and thousands of records during work from home.
A picture is worth a thousand words. I am attaching a file that shows the “before” for the Rameau complete works with links to the cleaned up records.
